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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 


BY 

WILLIAM  D.  HAYWOOD 

AND 

FRANK  BOHN 


•i*    •£■    •£• 


CHICAGO 
CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

CO-OPERATIVE 


Copyright   1911 
By   Charles   H.    Kerr   &  COMPANY 


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CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I.    Industrial  Slavery.  e 

(a)  The  Most  Wonderful  Thing  in  the  World j> 

(b)  The  Life  of  the  Worker 

II     Industrial  Progress.  n 

(a)  The  Private    Property    Superstition 

(b)  The  Growth  of  the  Machine  Process J  J 

(1)  Cloth    Making 

(2)  Power   Machinery 

(3)  The  Steamboat  and  Locomotive J« 

(4)  Farming  Machinery 

(5)  Mining    ,. 

(6)  Iron  and   Steel  Production £- 

III.    Industrial  Organization.  24 

(a)  The  Organization  of  Capital ^ 

(1)  The    Capitalist 

(2)  The   Corporation ^ 

(3)  The    Trust _ 

(4)  The   Industrial  Empire 

(5)  Industrial    Tyranny ^ 

(b)  The  Organization  of  Labor 

(1)  The   Class   Struggle 

(2)  Craft    Unionism •■ 

(3)  The  American  Federation  of  Labor *> 

(4)  Class    Unionism ^ 

(5)  Industrial    Unionism ^ 

(6)  The   General   Strike 

IV.    Industrial  Freedom.  ^ 

(a)  The  Growth  of  Socialism ^ 

'(b)   The    Socialist    Party 

(c)  Class    Unionism    and    Class    Politics ^ 

(d)  The    Social    Revolution    

(e)  The    Industrial    Republic... 

(f )  Questions    Concerning    Socialism 

177*3  iw  V  *i 


FOREWORD 

Socialism  is  the  future  system  of  industrial  society. 
Toward  it  America,  Europe,  Australasia,  South  Africa 
and  japan  are  rapidly  moving.  Under  capitalism  today 
the  machines  and  other  means  of  wealth  production  are 
privately  owned.  Under  Socialism  tomorrow  they  will 
be  collectively  owned.  Under  capitalism  all  popular  con- 
stitutional government  is  merely  political.  Its  main  pur- 
pose is  the  protection  of  private  property.  Industry  is  at 
present  governed  by  a  few  tyrants.  Its  purpose  is  to 
give  to  the  workers  as  little  wealth  as  possible.  Under 
Socialism  industrial  government  will  be  more  democratic 
than  political  government  is  today.  Its  purpose  will  be  to 
manage  production  and  to  establish  and  conduct  the  great 
social  institutions  required  by  civilized  humanity.  Political 
government  will  then,  of  course,  have  ceased  to  exist. 

This  booklet  is  primarily  an  introduction  to  the  study 
of  Socialism.  Its  title  has  been  chosen  advisedly.  But 
the  authors  have  also  in  mind  a  second  purpose.  While 
there  have  been  published  a  number  of  booklets  with 
the  contents  of  which  they  are  in  entire  agreement,  none 
has  yet  appeared  in  English  which  attempts  to  cover  the 
whole  matter  of  Socialist  principles  and  tactics  from  the 
industrial  standpoint.  The  point  of  view  of  industrial 
unionism  is  to  them  the  most  essential  factor  in  the  study 
of  Socialism.  Without  .that  the  whole  literature  of  eco- 
nomics, politics  and  bjstory_Js--entirely  worthless  to  the 
working  class.  With  it  the  Socialist  education  of  the 
workers  begins.  The  authors  are  constantly  presenting 
this  point  of  view  from  the  rostrum.  This  booklet  makes 
it  accessible  to  all  those  who  wish  to  understand  it. 


I— INDUSTRIAL  SLAVERY 

The  Most  Wonderful  Thing  in  the  World.— The  most 
wonderful  thing  in  the  world  today  is  not  at  all  "grand/' 
"beautiful,"  or  "inspiring."  It  is  the  most  terrible  as 
well  as  the  most  wonderful  thing  in  the  world.  At  first 
it  excites  only  fear  and  horror.  We  do  not  here  mean 
some  frightful  earthquake,  nor  plague  of  disease,  nor 
war.  The  most  wonderful  and  terrible  fact  in  the  world 
is  the  present  condition  of  the  working  class. 

In  the  United  States  30,000,000  people  work  for  other 
people,  to  whom  they  yield  more  than  two-thirds  of  their 
product  for  the  privilege  of  working. 

These  working  people  have  usually  nothing  at  all  to 
say  as  regards  the  amount  they  receive,  the  conditions 
of  their  labor  and  when  they  shall  be  at  work  and  when 
at  leisure.  They  are  permitted  to  live  in  this  country 
only  so  long  as  the  few  capitalists  in  it  give  them  work 
and  thus  permit  them  to  stay. 

The  working  people  of  the  United  States  produce 
more  wealth  in  one  year  than  was  ever  produced  in  any 
other  nation  in  the  same  period  in  the  world's  history. 
But  these  workers  are  becoming  thinner,  shorter,  weaker 
— that  is,  they  have  less  life — than  the  American  people 
of  fifty  years  ago. 

In  the  United  States  750,000  workers  are  killed  and 
wounded  in  the  shops  and  mines  and  on  the  railroads 
every  year. 

The  vast  majority  of  the  toilers  in  the  United  States 
die  premature  deaths  of  diseases  caused  by  overwork,  by 
underfeeding  and   diseases   caused   by   dirt — dirt   in   the 


O  INDUSTRIAL   SOCIALISM 

air,  dirt  in  the  drinking  water,  dirt  and  poison  in  the 
workers'  food. 

The  idle  rich  of  the  United  States  waste  more  wealth 
than  any  other  idle  rich  class  have  wasted  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  One  woman  spends  $127,000  a  year  for 
"clothing."  Dogs  which  cost  $10,000  or  $15,000  are  now 
fashionahle  as  pets  among  the  rich.  The  idle  rich  of 
the  United  States  import  annually  nearly  $40,000,000 
worth  of  precious  stones.  Many  of  them  have,  beside  a 
great  mansion  in  New  York,  Chicago,  San  Francisco, 
and  one  or  more  large  country  estates  here,  a  town  house 
in  Paris  or  London,  and  a  country  estate  or  two  in  Eng- 
land or  France.  For  all  this  they  produce  nothing.  Their 
time  is  occupied  spending  the  millions  others  have  pro- 
duced. 

The  great  wealth  of  the  United  States  has  been 
created  by  its  toilers  alone.  It  is  being  wasted  by  its 
idlers.  The  working  people  are  sweating,  starving  and 
dying. 

The  most  wonderful  thing  in  the  world  is  the  fact  that 
tJiis  great  working  class  of  the  United  States,  30,000,000 
strong,  should  so  peaceably  and  quietly  go  on  in  the  same  old 
way. 

THE  LIFE  OF  THE  WORKER 

The  average  wage  earner  of  today  is  born  of  poor 
parents  who  work  for  a  living.  These  may  be  "well 
paid"  or  "poorly  paid."  That  is,  the  father  may  receive 
$5.00  a  day  and  keep  his  family  in  a  comfortable  cottage.. 
He  may  receive  only  $1.75  per  day  and  be  often  out  of 
a  job.  Then  the  mother  and  the  older  children  must 
work  in  order  to  get  enough  for  the  family  to  live  upon. 
In  either  case,  sooner  or  later,  the  children  of  the  wage 
worker  hunt  for  jobs  of  their  own. 

When  the  worker  gets  his  first  job  the  world  about 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  7 

him  takes  off  its  mask.  He  sees  it  as  it  is.  Hours  are 
long  and  most  work  is  monotonous.  Any  child  or  young 
person  naturally  very  much  dislikes  this  first  harsh 
experience  of  the  world  of  the  working  class.  His  games 
and  fun-making  are  given  up.  His  physical  growth  is 
stunted  and  his  mind  dwarfed  more  or  less.  Long  ago 
nearly  all  of  the  young  men  who  went  to  work  for  wages 
began  by  learning  a  trade.  This  trade  was  very  often 
extremely  interesting  to  them.  It  educated  their  minds 
and  developed  their  bodies.  If  they  were  apprenticed  at 
eighteen,  then,  perhaps  at  twenty  one,  they  were  sure 
of  steady  work  and  good  wages.  Today  very  few  of  the 
working  people  learn  a  trade.  They  work  in  some  factory, 
store  or  office  at  tasks  which  they  perform  as  well  in  a 
month  as  they  do  in  ten  years.  If  the  young  wage 
earner  is  vigorous  in  mind  and  body  he  revolts  at  this 
labor  and  makes  a  desperate  struggle  to  secure  an  edu- 
cation or  otherwise  make  it  possible  for  himself  to  rise  out 
of  the  working  class.  The  stronger  and  healthier  his 
body  and  the  keener  his  mind,  the  harder  does  he  fight. 
But  he  finds,  except  in  very  rare  instances,  that  the  doors 
of  opportunity  are  closed  to  the  children  of  the  workers. 

If  the  young  worker  learns  one  of  the  trades  which 
still  remain  in  modern  industry,  he  finds  after  he  has 
learned  it  that  it  also  is  being  abolished  by  the  invention 
of  new  machinery.  He  may  go  to  night  school  and 
complete  a  course  of  study,  or  take  a  correspondence 
course  in  mechanics  or  some  other  form  of  applied 
science.  If  he  does  he  will  discover  that  his  knowledge, 
gotten  at  such  sacrifice  of  time,  savings  and  effort,  will 
not  raise  his  wages.  There  are  now  so  many  educated 
poor  people  that  their  pay  is  on  the  average  much  less 
than  that  of  skilled  workers  in  the  trades.  Another  hope 
of  the  young  workers,  men  and  women,  is  to  save  money 
and   start  in   some   small  business.     Others   have   risen 


8  INDUSTRIAL   SOCIALISM 

and  become  wealthy.  Why  not  they?  So,  by  giving  up 
all  pleasures,  by  overwork  and  pitiful  economies,  does 
the  young  worker  make  his  start  in  business.  If  he  has 
been  fortunate  enough  not  to  lose  his  money  through 
some  bank  swindle,  he  at  last,  after  years  of  effort,  tries 
his  luck.  The  best  data  we  have  show  that  more  than 
nine-tenths  of  those  who  engage  in  small  business  fail 
utterly.  The  small  portion  who  "succeed"  do  so  by 
working  night  and  day,  Sundays  and  holidays.  Even 
they  make  but  meager  livings,  no  better  on  the  average 
than  the  wage-workers. 

The  hearts  and  minds  of  nearly  all  young  American 
working  people  are  full  of  hope.  They  cannot  conceive 
that  it  could  be  possible  for  them  to  toil  on  throughout 
their  lifetime  for  small  wages  and  every  day  find  the 
work  getting  harder.  They  do  not  at  first  realize  what 
it  is  to  be  a  wage-worker.  They  are  unmarried  and 
hence  often  have  a  little  more  money  than  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  keep  them.  This  the  young  workers  usually 
spend  for  good  clothes  and  for  an  occasional  holiday, 
The  daily  grind  of  labor  has  not  yet  deadened  their 
minds  nor  crushed  their  spirits.  Plans  for  advance^ 
ment  are  constantly  being  formed. 

Then  come  marriage  and  responsibility  for  a  family. 
Perhaps  the  care  of  aged  parents  adds  to  the  burden.  In 
any  case  by  the  time  the  worker  is  twenty-five  years  of 
age  he  has  lost  his  grip  on  his  hope  for  something  better. 
At  thirty,  with  growing  burdens,  he  gets  to  be  quite 
content  to  work  along  day  by  day  without  looking  for- 
ward to  anything  but  his  Saturday  pay  envelope.  He 
is  likely  to  be  afflicted  by  some  chronic  illness  due  to 
the  nature  of  his  work  or  the  insanitary  condition  of  his 
factory  or  home.  Perhaps  illness  in  his  family,  or  the 
birth  of  a  number  of  children,  so  increase  his  burden 
that  his  struggle  becomes  a  pitiless  daily  conflict  to  live. 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  9 

At  thirty-five  years  of  age  these  conditions,  coupled 
with  occasional  unemployment,  drive  the  worker  often  to 
despair.  But  later  he  gets  used  to  it.  Poor  food,  shoddy 
clothing,  a  shack  to  live  in,  unemployment — these  are  his 
lot  in  life  and  he  makes  the  best  of  it.  The  old  saying 
of  the  poet,  "Hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast," 
is  not  at  all  true  of  the  working  people  of  today.  In 
them  hope  dies.  At  forty  or  fifty  years  of  age  the 
average  worker  plods  along  rather  carelessly.  If  he 
suffers  an  injury  in  the  factory  he  eats  without  worry 
the  bread  of  charity,  which,  twenty  years  before,  he 
would  have  despised.  He  knows  that  he  cannot  educate 
his  children.  He  may  see  them  go  early  to  work  and 
injure  their  health.  But  he  is  so  happy  to  receive  their 
weekly  wage  to  help  out  at  home  that  he  forgets  that 
they  are  young  and  should  be  at  play  or  at  school. 

This  man  is  exactly  what  the  owners  and  rulers  of 
America  now  wish  him  to  be.  He  is  strong  enough  to 
do  the  work  they  want  done.  He  does  not  demand  vaca- 
tions and  amusement,  a  better  home  and  education  for 
his  children.  So  he  will  not  strike  for  more  wages. 
The  vast  majority  of  the  American  working  people  over 
forty  years  of  age  cannot  be  made  to  understand  their 
condition.  Life  for  them  has  lost  all  light  and  beauty 
and  hence  all  desire  for  more  of  its  good  things.  Quite 
as  hopeless  is  the  state  of  mind  of  some  of  the  younger 
workers.  A  portion  of  these,  born  of  parents  broken 
and  weary  from  work,  and  themselves  underfed  and 
sent  early  to  factories,  are  as  careless  about  their  condi- 
tions of  life  as  are  their  parents.  But  with  a  majority 
of  the  young  and  a  considerable  minority  of  the  older 
folks  this  is  not  true.  They  want  more  wages  and  less 
work.  They  desire  rest  and  leisure,  a  chance  to  know 
their  family  and  friends  better,  and  an  occasional  vaca- 
tion in  the  country.    They  wish  to  read,  hear  good  music 


10  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

and  go  to  theaters.  Above  all  they  crave  Le+ter  food  ?rj 
more  of  it  and  they  know  that  their  limb?  are  stiff  be- 
cause of  the  lack  of  enough  rest  and  exercise. 

To  such,  and  such  only,  are  the  following  pages  ad- 
dressed. Those  who  are  utterly  broken  in  body  and 
decayed  in  mind,  those  who  are  deadened  beyond  being 
moved  by  the  facts  of  life,  those  who  think  that  they 
somehow  deserve  all  the  labor  and  pain  and  misery  of 
the  world  and  that  a  few  others  should  enjoy  plenty  and 
peace  and  opportunity,  we  earnestly  request  to  at  once  pass 
this  booklet  along  to  someone  else.  For  it  can  be  of  no  in- 
terest to  themselves. 

We  see  today  a  working  class  bowed  down  by  labor. 
We  see  it  starved  by  poverty.  We  see  all  its  efforts  to 
improve  its  condition  met  by  blows  in  the  face.  We 
see  babies  dying  because  their  parents  cannot  support 
them.  We  see  tender  children  enslaved  in  mines  and 
sweatshops.  We  see  strong  men  committing  crimes  be- 
cause they  cannot  find  masters.  We  see  the  aged,  after 
lives  of  long  and  loving  service,  begging  for  bread  and 
craving  death. 

Socialism  is  a  message  of  hope.     It  is  addressed  to 

the  working  class.     It  will  save  the  working  class,  or 

rather,  show  the  working  class  how  to  save  itself.     The 

world  does  not  need  to  be  cursed  by  long  labor,  by  low 

wages,  by  starvation,  by  worry,  and  by  disease.    Millions 

now    know    that    these    conditions    may    be    completely 

changed.      When    enough    of    the    workers    understand 

Socialism,  believe  in  it,  and  are  firmly  resolved  to  have 

it,  the  time  will  be  ripe  for  the  change.     That  change  is 

coming.     It  is  coming  soon.     Every  added  recruit  who 

will  read  and  think  brings  it  nearer. 

"On  we  march  then,  we  the  workers,  and  the  rumor  that  ye  hear 
Is  the  blended  sound  of  battle  and  deliv'rance  drawing  near; 
For  the  hope  of  every  creature  is  the  banner  that  we  bear, 
And    the    world    is    marching    on." 


II— INDUSTRIAL  PROGRESS 

The  Private  Property  Superstition. — The  working 
class  is  today  enslaved  chiefly  because  it  does  not  under- 
stand the  conditions  of  its  life  and  labor.  A  few  rich 
people  own  the  lands  and  machines.  The  many  labor 
and  have  nothing.  This  every  worker  knows.  But  why 
is  this  so?  How  long  has  it  been  thus?  How  long  is 
it  likely  to  continue?  And  most  important  of  all,  what 
are  the  workers  going  to  do  in  order  to  help  themselves? 
When  we  ask  these  questions,  we  find  that  very  few 
workers  can  give  a  clear  and  satisfactory  answer.  Only 
when  they  can  answer  these  questions  will  the  first  great 
step  toward  a  better  condition  have  been  taken. 

The  Story  of  the  Island. — Let  us  simplify  the  prob- 
lem. Imagine  that,  instead  of  continuing  to  work  here 
in  America  among  the  30,000,000  workers  on  this  great 
continent,  ten  workers  should  go  off  to  an  uninhabited 
tropical  island  which  is  only  ten  square  miles  in  area. 
There  they  would  not  need  expensive  houses  and  cloth- 
ing, nor  would  they  have  to  lay  by  great  supplies  of  food 
for  the  winter.  A  very  small  amount  of  labor  would  be 
enough  to  support  a  family.  Now  let  us  suppose  that 
when  the  ten  went  ashore  on  that  island,  one  of  their 
number  should  step  forward  and  say: 

"This  is  my  island.  I  hold  here  a  document  which 
proves  it.  This  document  was  received  by  my  great- 
great-grandfather  from  the  King  of  Great  Britain  in 
1760.  Of  course  the  King  never  saw  the  island,  neither 
did  my  great-great-grandfather.  But  I  am  his  only 
living  heir.  So  the  island  is  all  mine.  The  law  permits 
me  to  do  with  it  what  I  wish.     I  am  not  going  to  drive 

11 


12  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

you  away.  In  fact,  I  shall  not  stay  myself  unless  you 
do.  I  see  that  you  have  tools  with  which  to  cultivate 
the  soil.  Go  to  work  at  once.  I  shall  charge  you  for 
rent  only  three-fourths  of  what  you  produce.  That  is, 
if  any  of  you  produce  a  hundred  bushels  of  sweet  pota- 
toes, I  shall  take  seventy-five  and  leave  you  twenty-five. 
Each  of  you  will  need  all  that  is  left  you,  but  of  course  I 
shall  not  need  all  that  I  receive.  I  shall  be  paid 
as  rent  twenty-seven  times  as  much  as  any  of  you 
are  permitted  to  keep.  I  shall  use  of  this  one  part, 
and  send  twenty-six  parts  to  America.  There  it  will 
be  sold  and  for  the  money  I  shall  buy  machines. 
\\  lien  the  machines  come  you  need  no  longer  pay  me 
rent.  Each  of  you  will  then  produce  1,000  bushels.  In- 
stead of  letting  you  keep  twenty-five  bushels,  as  I  did 
when  you  rented  the  land  of  me,  I  shall  pay  you  only 
enough  money  to  buy  back  fifteen  bushels.  If  you  do 
not  wish  to  work  for  me  you  need  not.  You  will  still 
be  free  citizens  of  this  island.  Those  who  think  I  am 
not  leaving  them  enough  may  stop  working.  There  is 
the  sea.  You  may  jump  into  it.  In  that  case  I  can  get 
plenty  others  from  the  cities  of  the  United  States  who 
will  gladly  come  here  and  take  your  places.  I  shall, 
however,  at  once  make  one  of  you  a  policeman,  who  will 
club  the  remainder  of  you  and  imprison  you  if  you  get 
to  be  unruly  and  disobey  the  laws  I  make.  I  shall  very 
soon  bring  a  lawyer  here.  He  will  teach  you  to  respect 
this  holy  document  I  hold  in  my  hand.  It  is  the  founda- 
tion of  our  property  and  of  our  liberties.  The  first  task 
to  be  performed  is  to  build  me  a  mansion  on  the  hill. 
After  that,  if  there  be  any  timber  left,  you  may  build 
yourself  some  shacks  here  on  the  beach." 

So  situated  the  propertyless  workers  would  quickly 
understand  their  condition.  Unless  they  were  bereft  of 
reason  by  respect  for  the  property   rights  of  the  indi- 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  13 

vidual,  they  would  simply  laugh  at  the  document  and 
its  owner.  They  would  probably  go  to  work  for  them- 
selves, each  taking  his  whole  product  and  leaving  the 
"owner"  only  what  he  himself  produced. 

North  America  No  Different. — The  working  people 
of  North  America  are  in  much  the  same  condition  as  the 
nine  workers  on  the  island  would  have  been  had  they 
quietly  consented  to  become  enslaved.  But  the  island  was 
very  small  and  North  America  is  very  great.  The  island 
had  ten  people,  North  America  has  more  than  100,- 
000,000.  On  the  island  there  was  but  one  old  worm- 
eaten  paper  which  established  the  owner's  right  to  prop- 
erty in  the  land.  In  North  America  the  workers  behold 
a  great  mass  of  laws,  old  and  new,  which  they  have 
been  carefully  taught  to  respect  and  obey.  These  laws 
were  made  by  the  political  and  legal  servants  of  the 
masters.  They  were  created  for  the  purpose  of  protect- 
ing property  which  existed  long  before  the  law  gave  the 
owners  a  "right"  to  it.  Yet  all  the  rights  which  the  capital- 
ists claim  are  based  on  these  laws.  As  soon  as  the 
workers  determine  to  abolish  them,  or  ignore  them,  the 
capitalists'  "right"  to  what  the  workers  have  produced 
will  cease  to  exist. 

If  this  seems  very  strange  and  hard  to  understand 
it  is  because  of  the  great  area  and  population  of  America 
and  the  long  time  it  has  taken  to  create  the  present 
gigantic  system  of  industry  with  its  protecting  laws 
and  government.  So  the  first  matter  to  deal  with  and 
understand  is  the  nature  of  this  system  of  industry. 

THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  MACHINE  PROCESS 

How  have  our  mines  and  factories  and  railroads  come 
to  be  just  what  they  are?  There  was  a  time  in  America 
when  every  young  man  could  start  out  and  make  a 
living  for  himself  without  begging  work  from  some  one 


14  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

who  had  it  to  offer.  The  cobbler  owned  his  shop  and 
small  tools.  The  carpenter  built  the  cobbler's  shop  and 
the  cobbler  mended  the  carpenter's  shoes.  This  was  a 
fair  exchange  of  labor.  No  one  was  robbed.  How 
different  it  is  today.  The  shoe  workers  in  some  of  our 
large  factories  make  on  the  average  twelve  pairs  of  shoes 
for  each  worker  in  a  day,  but  they  get  only  the  price  of 
one,  or  less,  as  wages.  The  carpenters  build  mansions 
for  the  rich  and  live  in  miserable  tenements,  which  are 
also  owned  by  those  same  rich.  How  did  all  this  come 
about  ? 

From  Hand  Labor  to  Machine  Labor. — The  story  of 
the  past  is  one  long  tale  of  constant  changes  in  human 
labor  and  human  life.  More  of  these  changes  occurred 
in  the  nineteenth  century  than  in  any  other  century  in 
human  existence.  Greater  changes  occurred  in  America 
during  this  century  than  in  any  other  country.  In 
America  they  were,  in  fact,  so  great  and  far-reaching  in 
their  effects  that  the  coming  change  to  Socialism  will 
not  be,  in  itself,  nearly  so  wonderful.  To  begin  with, 
in  1790  the  population  of  the  United  States  numbered 
less  than  4,000,000.  Nearly  all  these  people  lived  on  a 
narrow  strip  of  land  along  the  Atlantic  coast.  In  1910 
the  population  had  spread  over  the  whole  continent.  In 
this  short  period  of  time  North  America  was  won  from 
the  wilderness  and  turned  into  a  nation  of  farms,  fac- 
tories and  railroads.  It  was  surely  a  greater  task  for 
the  American  working  people  to  conquer  the  wilderness 
than  it  will  be  for  their  descendants  of  the  twentieth 
century  to  reconquer  America  from  the  few  capitalists 
who  have  taken  it .  from  them.  But  this  great  change 
brought  about  by  the  workers  of  the  last  century  could 
not  have  taken  place  had  it  not  been  for  a  change  in  the 
methods  of  work  which  everywhere  came  with  it.  We 
refer  to  the  change  from  hand  labor  to  machine  labor. 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  15 

This  was  the  most  important  revolution  that  the  world 
has  ever  known.  We  must  relate  briefly  how  it  took 
place  in  America.  For  unless  it  is  understood,  Socialism 
and  the  Socialist  Movement  cannot  be  understood. 

Cloth-Making. — Before  the  year  1800  most  of  the 
cloth  worn  in  America  was  spun  and  woven  in  the  homes 
of  the  people.  A  farmer  would  own  a  few  sheep  and 
himself  clip  their  wool.  His  wife  and  daughters  then 
took  this  wool,  cleaned,  spun  and  carded  it,  and  wove  it 
into  cloth.  Of  the  cloth  they  made  clothing  for  all  the 
members  of  the  family.  Thus  no  capitalist  was  permitted 
to  take  a  large  part  of  their  product  for  permitting  them 
to  work. 

Two  machines  brought  about  a  great  change  in  this 
important  work.  The  first  was  the  spinning  machine, 
which  was  invented  in  England  in  1764.  A  weaver 
named  Hargreaves,  who  could  neither  read  nor  write, 
got  the  idea  and  successfully  worked  it  out.  It  was  one 
of  the  most  important  inventions  of  all  history  and 
therefore  Hargreaves  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  who 
ever  lived.  But  the  historians  have  not  been  much  inter- 
ested in  what  the  working  people  have  done,  although 
they  have  done  almost  everything  worth  while  in  the 
world. 

This  machine  was  improved  by  others  and  finally 
brought  to  a  state  of  great  perfection.  The  first  Ameri- 
can factory  to  use  cotton  spinning  machinery  was  built 
in  Rhode  Island  in  1791.  These  factories  would  probably 
have  not  been  very  successful  in  America  had  it  not 
been  for  another  important  machine  invented  in  1793. 
This  was  Whitney's  cotton-gin.  Like  Hargreaves,  and 
nearly  all  other  inventors,  Whitney  was  a  poor  man, 
being  a  school  teacher.  He  died  poor.  The  cotton-gin 
made  it  possible  to  raise  cotton  over  the  whole  of  the 
Southern  states.     It  was  probably  the  most  important 


16  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

machine  ever  invented  in  America,  as  it  gave  long  life 
to  chattel  slavery  and  thus  brought  about  the  Civil  War. 
These  machines  made  cotton  and  cotton  cloth  cheap. 
The  whole  industry  of  cloth-making  was  taken  from  the 
homes  to  factories.  In  1804  there  were  only  four  textile 
mills  in  operation.  In  1811  there  were  87  mills,  with 
80,000  spindles  and  4,000  wage-workers.  In  1815  there 
were  76,000  workers  in  the  textile  factories.  This  devel- 
opment was  brought  about  practically  by  the  War  of 
1812  and  the  trouble  with  Great  Britain  leading  up  to 
it,  which  kept  British  goods  out  of  the  American  market. 

Since  that  time  this  industry  has  grown  wonderfully. 
The  machines  have  been  constantly  improved.  At  first 
it  took  a  worker  to  tend  each  machine.  At  the  present 
time  much  of  the  cotton  and  wool  is  spun  and  woven 
almost  automatically.  In  some  cases  the  worker  tends 
twelve  machines,  the  product  of  these  being  300  yards 
of  cloth  a  day.  It  was  of  a  great  benefit  to  the  capitalists 
that  women  and  children  could  operate  textile  machinery. 
This  made  wages  low  and  profits  large.  And  where 
wages  are  low  and  profits  are  large  we  have  a  heaven 
for  the  capitalist  and  a  hell  for  the  wage-worker.  Hours 
are  usually  long — ten  hours  a  day  being  the  rule  in  the 
North  and  twelve  hours  in  the  South.  In  the  South 
tens  of  thousands  of  very  small  children,  many  under 
eight  years  of  age,  are  employed  in  this  industry.  In 
some  cases  wages  are  so  low  that  the  capitalist  takes 
more  in  profits  every  year  than  his  whole  plant  is  worth. 
A  great  many  kinds  of  cloth  are  now  made  by  machines. 
The  workers  produce  silks  and  fine  woolens  for  their  idle 
masters.  For  themselves  they  buy,  with  their  small 
wages,  cheap  cottons  and  shoddy  goods  made  out  of 
old  rags. 

Working  people  invented  practically  all  of  the  ma- 
chines.    Working   people   raise   all   of   the   cotton   and 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  17 

wool.  Working  people  manufacture  the  cloth.  But  the 
idle  capitalists  own  the  machines.  That  is  the  cause  of 
the  great  injury  done  the  workers. 

Power  Machinery. — Who  shall  do  the  work?  We 
have  already  asked  and  partially  answered  this  question. 
Generally  speaking,  people  do  not  work  any  more  than 
they  must.  The  poor  must  work  or  starve.  That  is  why 
one  finds  them  always  so  busy.  But  machines  are 
cheaper  to  keep  than  people.  That  is  why  machines  have 
been  so  much  introduced  by  the  capitalists.  Machines 
do  not  have  to  be  fed  and  clothed.  Also,  it  does  not 
cost  so  much  to  make  machines  as  it  does  to  raise 
children.  So  the  machine  process  permits  the  capitalists 
to  pay  the  worker  just  enough  to  keep  himself.  Low 
wages,  therefore,  force  the  working  people  to  take  their 
children  to  the  factory.  Very  often  the  children  can 
secure  work  when  there  is  none  to  be  had  for  the  parents. 
He  will  do  the  work  who  will  work  cheapest. 

Wanted,  Cheap  Power. — Most  wage-workers  are  to- 
day occupied  in  tending  machines.  That  is,  they  set  the 
machines  to  work,  feed  in  the  raw  material,  and  take 
away  the  product.  The  first  machines  were  run  by  hand. 
Hand  power  or  human  power  has  been  the  oldest  and 
most  common  form  of  power.  But  to  the  employer  this 
method  is  very  expensive,  because  he  must  pay  back 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  worker's  product  in  wages. 
There  have  been  many  forms  of  power  developed  to 
take  the  place  of  the  strength  of  the  individual  worker. 
These  have  been,  chiefly,  the  power  of  animals,  of  falling 
water,  of  the  winds,  of  steam,  of  electricity,  and  of  ig- 
nited fuel  gases,  such  as  gasoline.  All  of  these  have 
been  of  tremendous  importance  in  the  history  of  industry. 
Without  the  help  of  draft  animals  in  agriculture  and  land 
transportation,  and  of  the  sailing  vessel  for  water  trans- 
portation, it  is  doubtful  whether  civilization  could  ever 


18  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

have  developed.  Steam  power  came  to  be  used  about 
the  same  time  that  cloth-making  machinery  was  invented. 
It  was  soon  applied  to  the  many  other  machines  which 
were  developed  in  rapid  succession.  The  nineteenth 
century  was  the  century  of  the  steam  engine.  In  Eng- 
land it  was  used  to  operate  textile  machinery  as  early 
as  1779-  Even  before  that  time  it  had  been  used  to  pump 
water  out  of  the  coal  mines  and  to  bring  coal  to  the 
surface.  This  greatly  cheapened  the  production  of  coal 
and  therefore  of  iron.  Cheap  iron  made  possible  cheap 
steam-engines  and  other  machines.  So  the  various  in- 
dustries that  were  developing  helped  one  another  along. 
The  Steamboat  and  Locomotiye^In  America  the 
steamboat  was  first  developed  afeout  1785,  but  not  made 
profitable  until  Fulton  navjgalfed  up  the  Hudson  in  1807. 
The  many  excellent  streams  for  water  power  long  kept 
the  stationary  steam-engine  from  coming  into  use  as 
rapidly  in  America  as  in  ^Engmnd.  In  1829  the  first 
locomotive  was  operated^in/dre  United  States.^  In  1830 
there  were  only  twenty-Tnree  miles  of  railroad;  in  1840, 
eighteen  hundred/! raffes ;  in  1850,  seven- -thousand  miles; 

i  IS  ^  jS^ 

in  1860,  tlurty^housand  miles;  in  1,870,  seventy-two  thou- 
sand miffs.  At  the  present  jtinfe  the  United  States  con- 
tains. 240,000  miles  of  rauVOad.  This  great  growth  in  the 
means  of  transportation,  together  with  the  development 
of  the  postal  system,  telegraph  and  telephone,  has  devel- 
oped the  national  and  international  market.  So  long  as 
machmes  must  be  run  by  hand,  by  horse  power  or  by 
water  power,  factories  were  small  and  therefore  their 
output  was  limited.  A  large  number  of  these  small  fac- 
tories could  not  be  located  in  one  place,  even  if  water 
power  could  be  had,  because  of  the  great  cost  of  trans- 
portation. Small  factories  were  therefore  scattered  about 
the  country  wherever  there  was  good  water  power  and 
the  markets  were  near  at  hand.     The  brains  of  a  capi- 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  19 

talist  might  have  been  ever  so  great,  they  could  not  out- 
run the  conditions  of  industry.  The  whole  nation  went 
forward  together,  everybody  except  the  idlers  among 
the  capitalists  helping  in  the  progress.  Of  course  the 
great  inventors  did  more  than  anybody  else,  but  a  large 
number  would  be  working  at  one  invention  at  a  time, 
and  many  failures  were  usually  required  to  develop  the 
knowledge  which  finally  made  one  inventor  successful. 

So  power  machinery  has  grown  to  its  present  great 
proportions.  The  real  difference  between  the  America 
of  today  and  the  America  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
period,  is  the  difference  between  an  ox-team  hauling  a 
ton  and  a  great  locomotive  hauling  5,000  tons.  The 
greatest  of  the  modern  locomotives  thus  does  the  work  of 
10,000  oxen  or  horses.  In  the  factories,  meanwhile,  the 
stationary  steam-engine  and  the  electric  dynamo  have 
developed  to  the  same  degree.  One  man  working  with 
modern  machines  is  thus  able  to  do  the  work  of  one 
hundred,  one  thousand  or  even  five  thousand  men  work- 
ing without  machines.  But  these  foolish  workers  work 
harder  than  ever  they  did  before.  If  they  cannot  keep 
up  with  the  machines  they  are  discharged  and  others 
hired. 

Farming  Machinery. — In  agriculture  the  change  from 
small  tools  to  machines  has  been  almost  as  great  as-  in 
manufacturing.  Nearly  all  of  the  work  now  done  on 
farms  is  done  by  machines.  It  was  the  second  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century  that  witnessed  the  great  changes 
on  the  American  farm.  McCormick,  a  farm  boy  in  Vir- 
ginia, invented  the  reaper.  This  made  it  possible  for  the 
Western  states  to  become  the  greatest  grain  producing 
area  in  the  world.  Cheap  food  meant  cheap  working 
people  in  the  cities.  So  American  capitalists  were  per- 
mitted to  compete  for  the  world's  markets. 

For  a  long  time,  down  even  till  1900,  farmers  who 


20  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

owned  one  hundred  or  two  hundred  acres  of  land  could 
make  good  use  of  the  machines  which  had  been  invented. 
Their  children  could  help  run  the  machines  and  thus 
they  kept  all  the  profits.  At  most  they  hired  one  or 
two  wage-workers,  with  a  few  extra  during  the  summer 
months.  But  the  machine  process  has  now  outgrown 
the  size  of  the  old-fashioned  farm.  Plows  are  being 
drawn  by  traction  engines.  Grain  is  being  reaped  and 
threshed  by  great  machines  which  the  small  farmer 
cannot  afford  to  buy  and  could  not  profitably  use  even  if 
he  possessed  them.  Above  all,  science  is  being  applied 
to  farming.  The  raising  of  crops,  the  breeding  and  care 
of  cattle,  and  all  the  other  work  of  the  farm  must  be 
carefully  studied.  One  man  cannot  possibly  know  all 
that  must  be  known  in  this  great  and  ever  changing 
industry.  So  we  must  have  farms  of  greater  and  greater 
area,  where  work  may  be  specialized  and  where  all  the 
modern  machines  and  scientific  methods  may  be  put  to  good 
use.  This  means  that  very  soon  only  great  capitalists  can 
get  profits  out  of  a  farm.  The  farm  has  been  the  last  place 
where  a  man  with  a  small  amount  of  money  could  go  to 
work,  be  his  own  boss  and  make  a  good  living.  But  soon 
this  will  be  impossible.  In  fact,  in  many  states  it  is 
already  impossible.  Whenever  the  farmer  must  rent  his 
farm  he  is  no  better  off  than  the  wage-worker  in  the 
city.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  half  the  farmers  in  America 
receive  no  more  for  their  long  days  of  hard  work  than 
unskilled  day  laborers. 

Mining. — Before  the  coming  of  steam-power,  coal 
mining  was  of  very  little  importance.  Now  it  is  one  of 
the  most  necessary  industries  we  have.  Coal  is  not  only 
used  for  steam.  It  is  also  the  most  important  domestic 
fuel  in  the  United  States.  In  the  form  of  coke  it  is 
necessary  to  the  manufacture  of  iron.  The  United  States 
is  now  first  in  the  production  of  coal. 

A  hundred  years  ago,  when  coal  mining  began  in  this 


I 

INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  21 

country,  any  farmer  on  whose  land  there  cropped  out  a 
vein,  might  open  a  mine  and  sell  the  product.  Today  the 
coal-miners  work  for  great  trusts.  They  use  machines 
and  other  expensive  apparatus.  The  mines  which  employ 
the  largest  number  of  workers  turn  out  the  coal  most 
cheaply.  Even  if  a  man  with  a  small  tract  of  coal  land 
could  operate  a  mine  successfully,  he  could  not  dispose  of 
his  product,  because  the  great  companies  and  trusts  own  the 
terminals,  get  better  rates  from  the  railroads  and  have 
the  markets  monopolized. 

In  metal  mining  great  capital  is  even  more  strongly 
intrenched.  When  gold  was  first  discovered  in  California, 
a  workingman,  if  fortunate  enough  to  find  a  deposit,  could 
wash  out  the  precious  metal  in  a  pan.  But  this  method 
is  now  a  thing  of  the  past.  In  the  West,  gold,  silver  and 
copper  are  taken  from  rock  and  soil  which  must  be 
worked  by  expensive  machines.  All  of  the  great  copper 
mines  of  Montana  are  owned  by  the  Standard  Oil  inter- 
ests. The  Smelter  Trust,  under  the  control  of  the  Gug- 
genheims,  has  possession  of  a  large  part  of  both  the 
mining  and  smelter  industries.  If  a  man  in  the  West,  after 
a  long  search,  discovers  a  rich  mine,  he  can  not  work  it 
without  large  capital.  If  he  refuses  to  sell  it  for  a  small 
sum,  one  of  the  great  companies  will  swindle  him  out  of 
it.  All  he  can  then  do  is  to  go  to  work  for  wages  in  the 
mine. 

The  Making  of  Iron  and  Steel. — In  this  great  and 
important  industry  we  have  the  best  exampleofindustrial 
progress.  A  hundred  years  ago  it  was  conducted  like  any 
other  small  business.  One  man  would  own  a  mine  and 
another  would  burn  charcoal  on  his  farm.  These  men 
would  sell  their  product  to  a  third  man  who  owned  a 
forge  and  made  the  iron.  This  raw  iron  was  sold  to  a 
man  who  had  a  shop  for  working  it.  Finally  a  man  with 
a  rolling  and  slitting  mill,  who  put  it  into  shape  for  the 
nail-maker,or  the  blacksmith. 


22  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

With  every  development  of  new  machines  for  work- 
ing iron  and  steel  this  industry  has  grown.  Thirty  years 
ago  there  were  still  a  large  number  of  high-paid  workers 
in  the  iron  and  steel  industries.  Strength  and  skill  were 
required  to  puddle  the  molten  metal  or  work  it  into  the 
finished  product.  Then  came  the  blast  furnace,  and 
finally  the  Martin-Siemans  process  of  making  open- 
hearth  steel.  These  drove  the  old-fashioned  steel  worker 
to  the  scrap  heap  along  with  the  small  tools  he  used. 
The  iron  ore  now  goes  into  one  end  of  the  mill  and  the 
finished  product  comes  out  of  the  other.  For  a  man  with 
a  few  hundred  or  a  few  thousand  dollars  to  start  in  the 
iron  or  steel  business  would  be  ridiculous.  The  great 
Steel  Trust  now  owns  its  own  extensive  mines,  lines  of 
railroad,  and  a  fleet  of  vessels  on  the  Great  Lakes.  It 
has  a  large  number  of  gigantic  iron  and  steel  plants 
which  produce  from  sixty  per  cent  to  seventy  per  cent  of  the 
iron  and  steel  of  America.  The  Trust  could,  if  it  thought  it 
wise  to  do  so,  crush  out  all  competitors  in  a  year's  time. 

It  is  plain  even  from  this  short  survey  of  American 
industries  that  the  day  of  the  small  producer  is  past. 
Intelligent  people  always  do  their  work  in  the  easiest 
and  quickest  way.  The  manufacturer  who  produces  his 
product  the  most  cheaply,  survives.  Others  perish.  So 
those  who  live  and  maintain  their  standing  in  modern 
business  are  such  as  control  the  large  capital  necessary 
to  buy  the  best  and  most  machines  and  organize  the 
greatest  business. 

The  Machines  Are  Here  to  Stay. — When  machines 
were  first  invented  some  very  foolish  working  people 
attempted  to  destroy  them.  It  was  seen  that  the  ma- 
chines would  take  the  place  of  workers  and  thus  do  them 
harm.  The  workers  did  not  then  understand  that  the 
time  would  come  when  they  could  join  together  and 
own  and  control  the  machines  and  thus  be  able  to  work 
much  shorter  hours.    All  they  saw  was  that  the  machines 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  23 

were  doing  them  harm  at  the  time.  But  workingmen, 
either  organized  or  unorganized,  can  never  fight  the 
machines  successfully.  They  must  always  accept  the 
new  machine  and  learn  to  work  it.  Machines  are  now 
displacing  glass  workers  of  all  kinds,  plumbers,  carpen- 
ters and  other  woodworkers,  printers,  and,  in  fact,  almost 
every  kind  of  worker  there  is.  This  process  will  not  stop. 
On  the  contrary  it  will  go  on  ever  more  rapidly.  The 
unemployed  army  will  grow  greater  and  greater.  Women 
and  children  wage-earners  will  more  and  more  take  the 
place  of  men.  Already  there  are  at  work  for  wages  in 
America,  4,000,000  children  and  7,000,000  women.  There 
is  no  chivalry  in  the  workshop.  Capitalism  compels  sex 
equality.    At  present  it  is  equality  in  a  common  slavery. 

Let  the  Machines  Work  for  the  Workers. — One  of 
the  worst  features  about  the  members  of  the  working 
class  is  that  they  do  not  think  themselves  happy  unless 
they  are  hard  at  work.  Instead  of  letting  the  machines 
do  the  work  many  workers  would  rather  do  it  them- 
selves. This  comes  from  the  fact  that  there  was  a  time 
when  there  were  very  few  idlers  and  when  all  the  work- 
ers, both  men  and  women,  were  forced  to  toil  constantly 
in  order  to  live.  The  working  class  thus  got  into  the 
habit  of  work.  It  now  finds  it  very  hard  to  give  up  the 
bad  habit,   even   though   only   a  little  work   is   necessary. 

Machines  have  come  to  free  the  working  class.  Until 
the  invention  of  machines  workers  were  enslaved  by  small 
tools  to  the  soil.  For  them  it  was  work  or  starve.  Work 
or  starve  it  is  still,  not  because  nature  enforces  slavery, 
but  because  they  have  not  yet  seen  their  way  out  of  it. 
They  are  enslaved  not  to  the  soil  but  to  the  people  who 
own  the  machines.  The  Socialist  Movement  has  come  to 
place  the  machines,  the  shops,  the  railroads,  the  land  and 
the  mines  in  the  possession  of  the  workers.  That  will 
mean  freedom,  security  and  opportunity  for  all  who  live. 


Ill— INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATION 

The  Foundations  of  Government. — The  world  is  ruled 
by  force.  The  foundation  of  this  force  is  control  over 
a  large  number  of  people.  The  capitalists  rule  the  world 
today  because  they  have  organized  the  workers  in  the 
shops  and  control  them.  They  own  and  direct  the  in- 
dustries. 

A  visitor  to  an  insane  asylum  saw  three  wardens 
take  three  hundred  of  the  inmates  out  for  exercise.  The 
visitor  expressed  surprise  at  the  perfect  control  which 
the  three  had  over  the  three  hundred.  He  asked  for  an 
explanation  and  was  told  that  the  three  wardens  were 
organized  and  that  the  three  hundred  insane  were  un- 
organized. That  is,  the  three  had  their  minds  made  up 
as  to  just  what  they  wanted  to  do  and  did  it.  The  three 
hundred  did  not  have  their  minds  made  up.  They  did 
not  care  what  they  did  nor  what  was  done  with  them. 

Society  develops  with  the  advance  of  science  and  the 
invention  of  machines.  Industrial  development  produces 
ever  higher  forms  of  organization.  We  shall  first  dis- 
cuss the  growth  and  nature  of  the  present  or  capitalist 
organization  of  industry. 

THE  CAPITALIST 

At  first,  when  machines  are  small  and  few,  an  indus- 
try is  controlled  by  small  capitalists.  Individuals  own 
the  machines,  the  raw  materials  and  perhaps  the  land  on 
which  and  the  shop  in  which  the  work  is  carried  on.  In 
this  first  stage  the  capitalist  often  works  along  with 
his  employees.  He  at  least  is  useful  in  that  he  directs 
industry.     He  buys  the  raw  material.     He  superintends 

24 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  25 

the  shop.  He  sells  the  finished  product.  But  even  at 
this  stage  the  portion  he  takes  as  profits  is  much  greater 
than  his  part  in  production.  His  income  is  not  at  all 
determined  by  the  work  he  performs.  Let  us  see  what 
does  fix  the  amount  he  takes  from  the  workers  as  profits 
and  the  amount  he  gives  them  as  wages. 

Wages  and  Profits. — When  the  capitalist  employs 
the  worker  he  of  course  pays  as  little  in  wages  as  possi- 
ble. If  the  worker  is  skilled  he  will  usually  get  more 
wages  than  if  unskilled,  because  it  required  time  and 
labor  to  develop  his  skill.  If  workers  are  scarce  their 
price  in  the  market  will  go  up  for  a  time.  If,  however, 
there  are  many  unemployed,  wages  will  decline.  Wages 
are  the  price  paid  in  the  market  for  the  labor  power  of 
the  worker.  The  amount  of  wages  does  not  depend  at 
all  upon  the  amount  of  the  workers'  product.  On  the 
average,  wages  amount  to  just  enough  to  keep  the  worker 
in  good  shape  for  his  work.  If  there  were  no  great  un- 
employed army,  if  machines  did  not  constantly  take  the 
place  of  more  and  more  workers,  then  the  average  male 
worker  would  have  to  receive  enough  to  support  a  wife, 
and  children  to  take  the  place  of  the  parents.  But  the 
unemployed  army  and  the  new  machines  are  constantly 
forcing  wages  in  many  industries  down  to  a  point  below 
what  is  absolutely  necessary  to  support  a  wife  alone,  not 
to  mention  children.  Also,  until  about  twenty  years  ago 
there  was  another  factor  in  American  life  that  tended  to 
keep  wages  up.  There  was  plenty  of  free  land  in  the 
West.  The  strongest,  boldest  workers,  especially  those 
who  had  a  little  money  in  the  bank,  could  always  go 
West  and  take  up  free  land  or  get  a  good  job.  In  the 
West  there  was  much  work  to  be  done  and  workers  were 
scarce.  As  some  left  the  East  the  wages  of  others  went 
up  or  were  prevented  from  going  down.  So  there  devel- 
oped among  the  working  people  in  America  what  has 


26  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

been  known  as  "the  American  standard  of  living."  But 
during  the  last  twenty  years  American  workers  have 
been  constantly  getting  less  and  less  for  their  work. 

How  Wages  Have  Gone  Down. — In  dollars  and  cents 
the  average  wages  have  probably  not  gone  down  at  all 
during  the  past  fifteen  years.  In  many  cases  they  have 
actually  risen.  But  measured  by  the  food,  clothing  and 
shelter  the  worker  can  buy  with  his  wages,  which  is  the 
only  true  way  to  measure  an  income,  wages  have  gone 
down  at  least  fifty  per  cent  in  this  time.  Prices  have 
gone  up  not  because  the  trusts  are  able  to  charge  any 
price  they  please,  but  for  a  wholly  different  reason. 
Gold  is  our  standard  measure  of  value  and  gold  is 
becoming  ever  cheaper  and  cheaper.  It  is  now  produced 
by  machines  and  the  cyanide  process.  As  much  gold 
can  be  turned  out  by  two  days'  labor  now  as  by  three 
days'  labor  fifteen  years  ago.  Therefore,  when  goods  of 
any  kind  are  sold  in  the  market,  it  takes  three  dollars  in 
gold  today  to  buy  as  much  as  two  dollars  would  buy 
formerly. 

But  wages,  the  price  of  labor  power  in  the  market, 
have  not  generally  gone  up.  Mr.  James  J.  Hill,  one  of  the 
greatest  railroad  magnates  in  America,  has  declared  that 
the  time  has  come  for  the  American  people  to  live 
cheaper,  like  European  peasants.  That  statement  is  ab- 
solutely true.  The  wages  of  the  American  worker  have 
gone  down  one-third  in  fifteen  years  because  he  can 
no  longer  get  away  from  his  master.  Machines  are  tak- 
ing his  place  and  he  can  no  longer  go  West,  take  up  gov- 
ernment land  and  be  free.  Had  the  value  of  gold  remained 
as  it  was,  wages  would  have  gone  down  just  the  same. 
Higher  prices  is  simply  a  form  which  lower  wages  takes. 

Nothing  but  Socialism  can  prevent  the  condition  of  the 
American  workers  from  becoming  just  as  bad  as  that  of 
the  working  people  of  Europe,  or  even  worse. 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  27 

The  Portion  of  Labor. — Wages  are  the  price  of  the 
food,  clothing  and  shelter  needed  by  the  worker  who 
has  the  job.  Profits  are  all  that  portion  of  the  laborer's 
product  which  is  left  to  the  capitalist  after  the  wages 
have  been  taken  out.  Let  us  suppose  that  a  capitalist 
sells  a  year's  product  of  his  shop  for  $100,000.  Suppose 
that  raw  materials  and  shop  expenses  amount  to  $25,000. 
The  product  of  the  workers  in  the  shop  is  therefore 
$75,000.  If  there  are  fifty  workers  in  the  shop  who 
receive,  on  the  average,  $500  a  year,  that  would  amount 
to  $25,000  in  wages.  There  is  still  left  the  sum  of  $50,000. 
That  is  profits  and  is  pocketed  by  the  capitalist,  who  may 
not  have  worked  a  single  day  in  the  shop  or  office.  Now 
let  us  say  that  next  year  five  machines  are  put  in  and  that 
they  replace  forty  workers.  These  five  machines  require 
only  five  workers.  That  means  that  fifteen  workers  will 
be  left  in  the  shop.  Their  wages,  at  $500  each,  will  be 
$7,500.  So  next  year  the  capitalist  will  pocket  $17,500 
more  in  profits,  or  $67,500.  By  and  by  the  starving 
workers  who  have  lost  their  jobs  will  come  back  and 
offer  to  work  for  less.  Wages  are  cut  to  $400  a  year. 
That  means  $1,500  more  in  profits.  At  the  present  time 
this  is  just  what  is  taking  place  everywhere  in  America. 
The  percentage  and  amount  of  profits  is  getting  to  be 
greater  and  greater  and  greater,  and,  on  the  average, 
wages  are  getting  to  be  less  and  less  and  less. 

Profits  do  not  go  up  because  the  capitalists  do  more. 
The  manager's  brains  are  under  the  workman's  cap.  In 
fact,  as  industry  develops,  the  capitalist  does  less  and 
less  useful  work.  Profits  go  up  because  the  capitalists 
own  and  control  the  industries. 

Wages  do  not  go  down  because  the  workers  produce 
less.  They  are  producing  ever  more  and  more.  Wages 
go  down  and  ever  down,  because  the  capitalist  can  buy 
the  workers  at  ever  cheaper  and  cheaper  prices  in  the 


28  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

market.  Wages  are  going  down  because  machines  are 
taking  the  place  of  workers;  because  women  and  chil- 
dren are  leaving  the  home  and  working  in  the  factories 
and  offices;  because  the  workers  can  no  longer  work  for 
themselves  but  are  chained  in  their  master's  service. 
Finally,  wages  go  down  because  it  takes  less  food,  cloth- 
ing and  shelter  to  keep  a  worker  alive  today  than  his 
father  required,  demanded  and  received  fifty  years  ago. 

The  Nature  of  a  Capitalist. — The  capitalists  and  their 
agents  are  constantly  telling  the  workers  that  they  got 
their  start  by  saving  their  money  and  wisely  investing  it. 
A  long  time  ago  this  may  have  been  true  in  some  cases. 
These  few  cases  of  capitalists  who  began  honestly  were 
constantly  pointed  out  until  the  workers  were  led  to 
believe  that  they  could  save  some  of  their  wages  and 
start  in  business.  Of  course  today  the  trusts  are  so 
powerful  that  very  few  workers  are  foolish  enough  to 
try  to  become  capitalists.  But  many  of  them  still  be- 
lieve the  foolish  tales  the  thieving  capitalists  tell  about 
themselves.  A  capitalist  does  nothing  except  for  profits. 
For  more  profits  there  is  nothing  he  will  not  do. 

The  True  History  of  Some  of  These  Capitalists. — In 
Gustavus  Myers'  "History  of  the  Great  American  For- 
tunes," we  find  a  true  account  of  the  lives  of  the  most 
noted  of  the  American  capitalists.  Mr.  Myers  has  most 
carefully  examined  the  records  of  courts  and  legislatures, 
family  histories  and  newspaper  files  dealing  with  the 
subject. 

For  instance,  the  Astor  family,  which  owns  more  than 
$400,000,000  worth  of  real  estate  in  New  York  City,  got 
its  start  through  the  fur  trade  with  the  Indians.  The 
Astor  agents  committed  a  crime  every  time  they  gave 
the  Indians  liquor.  But  they  regularly  made  the  Indians 
drunk  and  often  stole  their  furs.  The  founder  of  the 
family,  John  Jacob  Astor,  built  up  this  great  system  of 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  29 

criminal  trade  and  made  millions.  He  then  stole  great 
quantities  of  real  estate  from  the  city  of  New  York. 
In  the  War  of  1812  his  agent  proved  a  traitor  to  his 
country,  imparting  valuable  government  secrets  to  the 
British  in  return  for  protection  to  the  Astor  properties 
in  Canada.  Since  then  the  Astors  have  always  carefully 
observed  that  passage  of  Scripture  which  reads :  "Con- 
sider the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow;  they  toil  not, 
neither  do  they  spin."  Their  fortune  in  valuable  New 
York  real  estate  grows  while  they  sleep.  But  instead  of 
being  fed  by  the  Heavenly  Father  they  are  being  fed  by 
the  sweating  working  class  of  New  York  City. 

The  most  powerful  capitalist  in  America  today  is 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan.  He  is  said  to  control  ten  billions 
of  dollars.  He  himself  possesses  an  estate  worth  $250,- 
000,000. 

How  did  he  get  it?    Mr.  Myers  has  told  us. 

In  1861  the  government  of  the  United  States  was 
everywhere  hurriedly  purchasing  arms  to  put  in  the 
hands  of  its  soldiers.  Also  it  sold  much  worn-out  ma- 
terial to  make  place  for  new.  Among  the  junk  offered 
for  sale  was  a  supply  of  5,000  rifles  in  an  arsenal  in  New 
York  City.  They  were  more  dangerous  to  the  men  back 
of  them  than  to  those  in  front  of  them,  as  they  would 
burst  on  the  first  fire.  But  this  fact  did  not  worry 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan.  Instead  of  going  to  the  front  as  a 
soldier  he  staid  at  home  and  made  money.  Through  an 
agent  he  purchased  these  rifles  from  the  United  States 
government  at  $3.50  apiece.  He  then  resold  them  to 
the  United  States  government  at  $25.00  apiece.  The  gov- 
ernment paid  him  $17.50  for  each  rifle  but  refused,  upon 
learning  of  Mr.  Morgan's  swindling  game,  to  pay  more. 
In  1864  the  whole  Nation  was  worn  out  by  the  awful 
Civil  War.  Most  of  the  able  bodied  men,  except  a  crowd 
of  thieving,  grafting  capitalists  who  staid  at  home  and 


30  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

got  rich,  were  in  the  army.  Yet  at  that  time,  in  the  very 
crisis  of  the  war,  the  unspeakable  Morgan  won  his  suit 
against  the  government  and  collected  the  extra  blood 
money.  * 

When,  a  few  years  ago,  the  "muck-rakers"  were  ex- 
posing the  crimes  of  the  great  capitalists,  those  who 
tried  to  defend  them  pointed  to  Russell  Sage  as  a  man  of 
spotless  honor,  an  ideal  for  American  youth.  Mr.  Myers 
shows  that  Russell  Sage,  as  a  young  man,  started  out 
in  life  by  stealing  a  railroad.  He  then  took  the  money 
made  out  of  it  and  bribed  the  governor  and  legislature 
of  Wisconsin  into  giving  him  valuable  lands.  So  it  is 
with  all  of  them,  the  Vanderbilts,  the  Goulds  and  the 
Rockefellers.  They  get  their  great  wealth  not  only 
by  taking  their  profits  from  the  workers  directly.  They 
degrade  city,  state  and  national  governments  by  bribing 
the  officials  and  using  them  in  their  business.  They 
steal  from  one  another.  They  rob  the  ignorant  and  the 
weak.  But  of  course  the  'greatest  and  most  lasting  in- 
jury done  the  workers  consists  in  paying  them  wages  as 
low  as  possible  and  taking  as  much  profit  as  possible  in 
the  shops  and  mines  and  on  the  railroads  where  the  work- 
ers toil. 

No  one  ever  produced  $100,000,000  nor  $1,000,000. 
If  a  man  has  any  such  amount  of  wealth  he  got  it  by 
grabbing  and  keeping  profits  out  of  the  product  of  the 
workers.  He  may  have  gotten  it  directly  from  the  work- 
ers, or  indirectly  by  robbing  other  capitalists  or  gambling 
in  the  stock  market. 


*  See  Gustavus  Myers'  "History  of  the  Great  American 
Fortunes."  This  great  and  valuable  work  should  be  read  by 
every  American.  It  can  be  secured  from  the  publishers  of 
this  pamphlet. 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  31 

The  Social  and  Moral  Difference  Between  Capitalist 
and  "Worker. — No  worker  should  wish  to  become  a  capi- 
talist. The  small  capitalist  cannot  thrive  as  a  capitalist 
without  lying  and  cheating;  without  paying  low  wages 
and  sweating  his  workers  through  long  hours ;  without 
lying  awake  nights  planning  how  to  help  himself  by 
injuring  others. 

The  worker  cannot  rise  as  a  worker  without  joining 
in  unity  with  other  workers  and  helping  all.  This 
mutual  dependence  of  worker  upon  worker,  taught  them 
by  their  everyday  experiences  in  the  shop,  is  the  best 
and  finest  thing  in  modern  life.  It  leads  to  brotherhood. 
It  develops  the  mind  of  the  worker.  It  raises  him  out 
of  a  state  of  individual  selfishness  and  meanness  and 
points  to  the  goal  of  civilization — Socialism. 

THE  CORPORATION 

The  individual  capitalist  soon  found  that  he  was 
powerless  to  control  the  growing  government  of  the 
shop,  the  mine  and  the  store.  The  size  and  great  num- 
ber of  the  machines  invented  and  the  growing  market 
due  to  railroads  and  other  means  of  transportation  led 
to  this.  These  forces  became  too  great  for  him  to  con- 
trol through  his  own  personal  wealth.  So  there  came 
the  next  higher  form  in  the  organization  of  industry — 
the  corporation.  A  business  corporation  is  an  associa- 
tion of  capitalists,  which,  because  of  the  rights  granted 
to  it  by  the  government  through  its  charter,  can  do  busi- 
ness very  much  as  does  an  individual.  There  were  very 
great  corporations  which  engaged  in  commerce  long  be- 
fore modern  machines  were  invented.  The  first  Eng- 
lish settlements  in  North  America  were  made  by  such 
corporations  as  the  Virginia  Company  and  the  Plymouth 
Company.  So  the  corporation  is  a  very  old  form  ot 
organization.    But  at  first  it  was  confined  almost  wholly 


32  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

to  trade  upon  the  high   seas.     Before  the  invention  of 
machines  there  were  but  few  corporations  in  the  produc- 
tive industries.     In  England,  as  we  have  already  pointed 
out,  machines  began  to  be  used  in  the  making  of  cloth 
in  1764.     They  were  not  set  up  in  America  until  about 
1800.     After  that  time  corporations  developed  very  rap- 
idly.    Soon,  with  the  coming  of  machines,  corporations 
were  engaged  in  the  production  of  iron,  of  lumber  and 
of  many  other  commodities.     With  the  invention  of  the 
steamboat  in  1807  and  the  railway  in  1829,  the  size  of  the 
market  which  could  be  reached  by  a  corporation  grew  to 
include  the  whole  Nation.    So  the  corporations  developed 
rapidly  in  both  numbers  and  in  size.     As  long  ago  as 
when  Andrew  Jackson  became  President,  in  1829,  they 
became  so  powerful  as  to  dictate  the  policies  of  the  gov- 
ernment at  Washington.    Andrew  Jackson  saw  the  dan- 
ger.    He  saw  how  the  old  political  government  of  the 
people  was  used  by  the  new  industrial  government,  the 
corporations.     Although  he  smashed  the  most  powerful 
of  these,  the  great  United  States  Bank,  he  could  not  stay 
the  progress  of  industry.    The  corporations  were  bound 
to  grow  because  the  Nation's  industries  needed  a  govern- 
ment of  their  own.     The  working  people  were  not  pre- 
pared at  that  time  to  take  over  and  own  the  machines 
of  production.     So  they  were  owned  and  controlled  by 
the  rich.     Of  course  many    individual    capitalists    still 
owned  factories,  but  no  individual  ever  owned  any  rail- 
way line  of  any  consequence.     By  1861,  when  the  Civil 
War  broke  out,  the  capitalist  class,  composed  of  indi- 
viduals and  corporations,  was  quite  as  strong  as  the  great 
farming  class.     When  the  Civil  War  ended,  in  1865,  it 
had  grown  so   rich   through   cheating   the   government, 
through  high  tariffs,  high  prices  and  low  wages,  that  it 
was  by  far  the  most  powerful  class  in  the  country. 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  33 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  TRUSTS 

When  the  modern  Socialist  Movement  was  first 
started,  the  Socialists  aimed  to  do  two  things.  First, 
they  wished  to  abolish  competition  and  establish  co- 
operation. Second,  they  wished  to  have  the  working 
class  so  organized  that  they  could  control  the  machines 
of  production  and  take  the  whole  product.  The  first  of 
these  purposes  was  considered  to  be  as  important  as  the 
second.  Competition  was  known  to  be  a  very  great  evil. 
It  immensely  increased  the  whole  amount  of  work  to  be 
done.  For  instance,  instead  of  having  one  fine  large 
department  store  in  a  city  of  25,000  people,  the  Socialists 
saw  a  hundred  small  stores.  The  Socialists  saw  the  com- 
peting business  men  cheat  one  another  and  the  public. 
They  saw  ten  doing  work  which  one  could  do.  Surely 
this,  said  the  Socialists,  is  a  most  foolish  and  wasteful 
way  of  doing  business.  Socialism  would  make  an  end 
of  it.  Socialism  would  bring  about  co-operation  instead 
of  competition.  It  would  end  competition  not  only  in 
the  store,  but  also  in  the  shop. 

Competition. — At  this  the  small  business  men  laughed 
and  jeered.  "Competition,"  said  they,  "is  the  life  of 
trade.  Everybody  knows  that.  The  Socialists  are  most- 
ly lunatics  and  at  best  a  lot  of  dreamers.  Without  com- 
petition there  would  be  no  business  done  and  consequent- 
ly nothing  produced.  Every  one  would  go  naked  and 
starve."  So  said  the  small  shop  keepers  and  factory 
owners  forty  years  ago. 

Then  the  natural  growth  of  industry  brought  the 
trust.  The  trust  is  neither  "bad"  nor  "good."  It  is  sim- 
ply natural,  like  a  tree  or  a  river.  It  comes  when  condi- 
tions force  it  to  come.  Those  who  organize  a  trust  must 
do  so  in  order  to  protect  and  advance  their  interests. 

As  the  machine  process   develops,    competition    be- 


34  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

comes  instead  of  "the  life  of  trade,"  much  more  the  death 
of  trade.  Each  competitor  tries  to  outdo  the  others.  He 
goes  beyond  his  means.  The  markets  are  gluted  with 
goods  which  the  workers  have  produced  but  are  too  poor 
to  buy  from  the  capitalists.  One  competitor  after  an- 
other goes  bankrupt.  The  shops  become  idle  and  the 
stores  find  no  purchasers.  This  is  called  a  "crisis"  or  a 
"panic."  Meanwhile  the  workers  are  idle  and  the  small 
business  men  are  mined.  Whole  armies  of  people  starve. 
It  sometimes  takes  years  to  outgrow  a  panic. 

With  the  growth  of  competitive  industry  panics  be- 
come worse  and  worse.  The  worst  one  we  had  in  this 
country  was  that  of  1893-8.  The  growth  of  railroads, 
the  telegraphs  and  mail  service  had  increased  the  range 
of  the  market  to  include  the  whole  Nation.  A  small  fac- 
tory was  brought  into  competition  with  all  other  fac- 
tories turning  out  the  same  kind  of  goods.  Among  the 
railroads  the  words  "competition"  and  "ruin"  meant  the 
same  thing.  Two  or  more  competing  lines  would  force 
one  another  to  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  Running  ex- 
penses were  cut.  The  railroad  workers  were  shame- 
lessly underpaid  and  overworked.  The  lives  of  the  train- 
men and  of  passengers  were  sacrificed  as  in  war.  When 
the  owners  of  the  railroads  tried  to  abolish  this  foolish 
and  dangerous  competition,  the  ignorant  people  de- 
manded laws  forcing  it  to  be  continued. 

There  was  only  one  thing  to  do.  Trusts  must  be 
formed  to  control  the  markets.  The  first  great  group  of 
trusts  were  organized  in  1899. 

What  Is  a  Trust? — Trusts  are  formed  in  the  follow- 
ing way.  A  number  of  the  largest  producers  in  any  in- 
dustry, both  individuals  and  corporations,  bring  their 
holdings  together.  Suppose  that  one  hundred  separate 
pieces  of  property  are  to  be  taken  in.  A  board  of  trus- 
tees is  chosen.     The  owners  agree  upon  a  price,  in  each 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  35 

case,  with  this  board  of  trustees.  Then  they  place  their 
properties  in  "trust"  and  receive  stocks,  bonds  or  money 
from  the  central  organization.  The  trust  is  simply  a  later 
and  better  organization  than  the  corporation.  It  is  just 
as  foolish  to  try  to  smash  trusts  as  it  would  be  to  smash 
corporations  and  partnerships.  The  bigger  the  machines 
and  the  larger  the  market,  the  greater  must  be  the  organ- 
ization of  industry.  The  partnership  may  be  compared 
to  the  formation  of  a  family.  Two  people  unite  for  their 
mutual  welfare.  A  corporation  is  like  a  village  or  small 
town.  Then  comes  a  combine  of  corporations  and  indi- 
viduals which  resembles  a  county.  Finally  a  trust  is 
organized.  A  trust  controls  some  branch  or  great  depart- 
ment of  industry.  It  may  be  compared  to  a  state  like 
New  York,  Missouri  or  California.  Instead  of  control- 
ling a  definite  section  of  the  Nation's  territory,  it  con- 
trols a  branch  of  the  Nation's  industry. 

How  the  Trust  Becomes  a  Monopoly. — A  trust  in  any 
industry  starts  with  the  largest  and  best  factories  and 
controls  the  widest  markets.  Perhaps  it  possesses  also 
large  supplies  of  raw  materials,  a  part  of  which  its  small 
competitors  must  purchase.  At  first  it  is  not  likely  to  be 
a  monopoly.  It  may  not  even  control  a  majority  of  the 
trade.  Suppose  that  it  controls  30%  and  its  smaller  rivals, 
together,  70%.  But  the  trust  soon  begins  to  swallow  its 
competitors.  It  may  undersell  them  in  their  markets.  It 
hires  their  most  able  workingmen  and  selling  agents.  It 
secures  valuable  railroad  rebates,  an  advantage  in  which 
the  small  producer  cannot  share.  It  spies  upon  the  small 
producer  until  it  knows  just  what  he  is  doing  and  plans 
to  do.  Very  soon  most  of  the  small  producers  are  will- 
ing to  give  up  the  fight  and  sell  out  to  the  trust.  If 
not,  they  are  forced  into  bankruptcy.  Thus  the  trust 
becomes  a  monopoly.  Then  comes  its  period  of  prosper- 
ity.    As  a  monopoly  a  trust  may  often  raise  its  prices 


36  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

considerably  without  endangering  its  hold  on  the  market, 
for  small  competitors  do  not  dare  to  start  up  again. 
They  know  that  the  trust  will  quickly  lower  prices  in 
their  district  and  again  bring  them  to  ruin. 

The  Trust  and  the  Workers. — The  trusts  not  only 
crush  their  business  competitors.  They  are  able  to  smash 
the  old-fashioned  unions  which  grew  up  in  the  days  of 
small  machines  and  small  shops.  These  unions  were  com- 
posed of  skilled  workers.  The  progress  of  machine  in- 
dustry, making  their  skill  unnecessary,  destroyed  their 
effectiveness,  even  as  it  did  that  of  the  small  corporation. 
Only  there  is  this  difference.  In  place  of  the  small  cor- 
poration has  come  the  trust.  In  place  of  the  old-fash- 
ioned union  the  trust  has,  so  far,  permitted  few  new 
unions  to  grow.  The  most  striking  example  of  this  is  in 
the  iron  and  steel  industry.  This  gigantic  trust  pos- 
sesses great  mines,  ships,  railroads,  steel  plants  and  in 
some  cases  the  towns  in  which  the  plants  are  located.  It 
has  $1,400,000,000  of  capital.  It  employs,  when  working 
to  its  full  capacity,  200,000  workers.  In  the  old  days  of 
small  production  the  workers  were  protected  by  the 
Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers. 
This  union  secured  the  eight-hour  day  for  many  of  its 
members.  Today  many  of  the  slaves  of  the  Steel  Trust 
toil  twelve  hours  a  day,  seven  days  a  week.  On  the 
Great  Lakes  the  Steel  Trust  has  killed  the  Seamen's 
Union  and  made  serfs  of  the  sailors.  In  the  Lake  Supe- 
rior mines  the  workers  are  not  permited  to  organize. 
They  are  not  even  permitted  to  hold  public  meetings  for 
the  discussion  of  their  condition. 

The  Trusts  Are  Governments  of  Industry. — We  have 
seen  that  the  trusts  grow  naturally — that  it  cannot  be 
otherwise.  They  can  never  be  destroyed.  There  would 
in  fact  be  only  one  possible  way  of  making  an  end  to 
them.    That  would  be  to  smash  the  large  machines  of 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  37 

production  and  the  great  railway  systems.  The  trouble 
is  not  that  we  have  trusts.  The  workers'  condition  comes 
from  the  fact  that  the  trusts  are  owned  and  governed  by 
a  few  people.  Very  often  they  are  dominated  by  one 
man.  Thus  Morgan  governs  the  Steel  Trust.  Morgan 
can  make  a  law  increasing  the  hours  or  decreasing  the 
wages.  He  can  prevent  the  workers  from  protecting 
themselves  in  the  factories  and  thus  kill  and  injure  thou- 
sands of  them.  In  fact  560  steel  workers  were  killed  in 
the  mills  of  Pittsburg  in  a  single  year. 

Industrial  Tyranny. — The  workers  thus  live  under  an 
awful  tyranny.  They  are  ruled  without  their  consent. 
The  government  which  oppresses  them  is  the  government 
of  the  shops,  the  mines  and  the  railroads.  This  govern- 
ment declares  when  they  shall  work  and  when  they  shall 
be  idle.  All  of  the  profits  taken  by  the  capitalist  class 
are  in  reality  taxes  paid  by  the  workers.  These  taxes  are 
not  voted  by  the  workers.  They  are  seized  by  the  em- 
ployers. The  idea  that  we  have  freedom  in  America  is 
ridiculous.  What  the  capitalists  call  "freedom,"  is  noth- 
ing but  freedom  to  enslave  the  working  class.  This  they 
can  now  do  without  let  or  hindrance. 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  EMPIRE  OF  AMERICA 

We  have  compared  the  trust  to  an  industrial  state. 
Many  states  make  up  the  Nation.  In  the  same  way  many 
trusts  compose  our  present  great  nation  of  industry.  The 
trusts  are  rapidly  organizing  into  one  great  system.  So 
the  Nation  is  coming  to  be  governed  as  an  empire.  J. 
Pierpont  Morgan  is  now  the  chief  ruler  of  this  empire. 
He  is  the  emperor  of  the  trusts.  Under  him  there  are 
kings  and  dukes  who  rule  separate  trusts  and  corpora- 
tions. This  great  government  of  industry  is  said,  upon 
very  good  authority,  to  have  brought  on  the  panic  of 
1907  in  order  to  seize  several  great  corporations  which 


38  INDUSTRIAL   SOCIALISM 

were  fighting  it.  During  this  panic  it  grabbed  hundreds 
of  small  businesses. 

No  capitalist,  even  though  he  might  possess  ten  mil- 
lions or  twenty  millions  of  money,  can  today  start  any 
new  business  of  his  own  unless  he  goes  to  Wall  Street, 
appears  at  court,  and  gets  the  consent  of  the  Emperor  of 
America.  Whatever  small  separate  industries  exist,  still 
remain  alive  because  the  industrial  empire  does  not  wish 
to  crush  them  out  too  fast.  To  do  this  would  be  to  raise 
a  cry  of  revolt  among  the  middle  class.  Until  now  the 
workers  have  been  so  enslaved,  so  helpless,  so  deadened, 
that  the  Wall  Street  magnates  have  not  even  thought  of 
their  opposition  seriously.  But  it  would  not  do  to  go 
too  far  and  too  fast.  So  some  small  business  men  are 
still  permitted  to  enjoy  a  hand-to-mouth  existence. 

The  Industrial  Empire  and  the  Government  at  Wash- 
ington.— Morgan  and  his  associates  on  Wall  Street  use 
the  government  at  Washington  as  a  tool  to  serve  their 
ends.  They  rightly  despise  the  President,  the  members 
of  the  Supreme  Court  and  Congress,  for  these  politicians 
are  far  beneath  them  in  power  and  importance.  What 
laws  Wall  Street  wants  are  passed.  In  case  of  a  strike, 
the  governor  of  a  state  is  used  to  control  the  militia  and 
crush  the  strike.  The  federal  and  state  judges  issue  in- 
junctions, that  is>  they  make  such  new  laws  as  the  trusts 
want.  The  powers  of  the  separate  states  are  usually 
quite  strong  enough  to  deal  with  the  divided  and  blinded 
working  class.  But  if  these  do  not  suffice,  then  the  pow- 
ers of  the  National  Government  are  used.  Grover  Cleve- 
land, a  Democratic  President,  broke  the  great  A.  R.  U. 
strike  in  1894.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  a  Republican  Presi- 
dent, broke  the  Goldfield  Miners'  strike  in  1907.  The 
Republican  state  of  Pennsylvania  has  established  a  stand- 
ing army  of  its  own  in  order  to  have  it  ready  to  shoot 
working  people.    The  Democratic  legislature  of  Florida, 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  39 

in  the  spring  of  1911,  refused  to  pass  a  law  forbidding 
the  employment  of  children  under  eight  years  of  age. 
All  the  Democratic  and  Republican  officials,  from  dog- 
catcher  to   President,  are  but  the  hired  agents  of  the 

|      empire  of  industry. 

"  The  Real  Government  of  the  United  States. — America 

is  governed  from  Wall  Street,  New  York.  This  is  the 
real  seat  of  public  power.  Under  its  tyrannical  laws  all 
of  us  are  forced  to  live.  When  labor  raises  its  head  it 
is  quickly  clubbed  into  submission.  The  industrial  oli- 
garchs are  now  attempting  to  destroy  freedom  of  speech 
and  of  the  press.  Professors  in  the  universities  and  col- 
leges and  teachers  in  the  public  schools  do  not  attempt 
to  tell  the  truth  about  government.  Such  as  do  quickly 
lose  their  positions.  Clerj^men..  and  priests  do_nQt_dare 
preach  the  truth  about  the  working  class  in  their  ser- 
mons, for  the  industrial  empire  is  gaining  control  of  the 
churches.  All  of  the  newspapers  in  the  larger  cities, 
except  the  Socialist  papers,  are  owned  out  and  out  by 
the  capitalists.  They  are  used  to  keep  the  workers  in 
ignorance  and  to  entertain  them  with  pictures,  cheap 
sporting  news  and  sensational  reports  of  scandals. 

Thus  the  trusts  control  the  army,  the  navy,  the  police, 
the  political  government,  the  schools,  the  press,  the 
church,  and  even  the  theaters.  The  industrial  empire  is 
a  power  with  its  forces  encamped  in  every  city  and  state 
of  the  land,  armed  not  only  with  the  weapons  which 
slay  the  body,  but  also  with  those  mightier  weapons 
which  destroy  the  free  mind  of  the  working  class. 
Is  all  hope  lost? 
Let  us  see. 

THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR 

Capitalists  cannot  live  without  wage-workers.   Where 
one  class  exists  there  the  other  will  be  found.    Furtnev 


40  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

more,  there  is  sure  to  be  trouble  between  the  two.  The 
master  is  always  scheming  to  get  more  profits  out  of 
the  worker.  The  worker  rights  for  more  wages  from  his 
boss.  The  less  one  gets  the  more  there  is  for  the  other. 
Hence  we  have,  between  the  capitalist  and  his  worker, 
what  is  known  as  the  Class  Struggle. 

At  first  this  struggle  does  not  seem  to  be  important. 
The  small  capitalist  and  his  workers  associate  together 
and  may  for  a  time  be  good  personal  friends.  This  small 
capitalist  is  not  very  rich  nor  is  the  worker  very  poor. 
The  personal  relationship  between  the  two  prevents  vio- 
lent outbreaks.  At  this  stage  of  production,  especially 
in  America,  the  more  greedy  and  calculating  workers 
were  constantly  "rising"  and  becoming  small  capitalists. 

But  with  every  step  in  the  growth  of  industry,  peace 
between  the  capitalist  and  worker  becomes  less  likely. 
Soon  the  capitalist  lives  an  altogether  different  life  from 
the  worker.  He  associates  only  with  his  own  kind.  He 
builds  himself  a  palace  and  travels  about  the  world. 
Meanwhile  the  worker  continues  to  work  and  sweat  in 
the  shop.  Neither  he  nor  any  of  the  members  of  his 
family  meet  the  capitalist  or  his  family.  The  capitalist's 
children  go  to  college.    The  worker's  children  go  to  work. 

The  Growth  of  the  Class  Struggle. — And  thus  the  two 
classes  come  to  be  wholly  separated  as  regards  every 
aspect  of  life.  The  capitalist  who  never  works  comes  to 
despise  work  and  the  workers.  The  worker  naturally 
hates  the  capitalist  who  is  taking  such  huge  profits  and 
paying  such  low  wages.  But  at  first  the  worker's  opin- 
ions are  not  clear  in  his  own  mind.  In  fact,  few  workers 
even  now  understand  the  real  problem  which  confronts 
them. 

The  Problem  of  Labor. — However,  it  was  very  early 
discovered  that  the  only  way  for  the  workers,  to  make 
head  against  the  capitalists  was  to  organize.     The  pur- 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  41 

pose  of  labor  unions  has  been  to  control,  or  partly  con- 
trol, the  conditions  of  labor  and  the  division  of  labor's 
product.  That  is,  the  workers  seek,  through  their  unions, 
to  help  govern  the  industries,  instead  of  letting  the  capi- 
talist do  just  as  he  pleases.  Every  demand  made  by 
organized  labor  upon  the  capitalists  is  in  the  nature  of 
a  proposed  law  for  the  shop.  When  the  capitalist  surren- 
ders and  gives  in  to  the  demands  of  the  workers  the  law 
is  passed. 

The  Two  Kinds  of  Labor  Unions. — From  the  begin- 
ning of  the  labor  union  movement  in  America,  about 
1825,  there  have  always  been  two  views  as  regards  the 
methods  and  purposes  of  unions.  Some  unionists  always 
wished  to  organize  only  the  skilled  workers  in  small 
groups  and  thus  advance  the  price  of  their  labor.  Such 
unions  are  craft  unions  or  trade  unions.  These  do  not 
care  much  for  the  interests  of  the  working  class  as  a 
whole.  They  merely  wish  to  help  themselves  to  better 
conditions.  If  only  the  capitalists  give  in  to  their  de- 
mands, they  may  continue  to  oppress  members  of  other 
crafts  or  unorganized  workers  as  much  as  they  please. 
Of  course  so  long  as  the  members  of  a  craft  may  better 
their  condition  in  this  way  there  is  no  argument  against 
craft  unionism.  Craft  unions  will  exist  as  long  as  they 
are  successful. 

Early  Class  Unionism. — But  another  kind  of  unionism 
in  some  form  or  other  has  always,  from  the  beginning, 
been  advocated.  Thisjs  class  unionism.  A_class  union 
is  one  which  attempts  to  unite  all  the  workers  against 
all  the  capitalists.  It  recognizes  the  fact  that  all  the 
workers  are  suffering  from  the  same  cause.  It  sees  the 
capitalists,  whenever  driven  to  it  by  their  interests,  unite 
solidly  against  the  workers.  And  usually  the  advocates 
of  class  unionism  have  been  wise  enough  to  foresee  that 
if  the  workers  wish  permanent  relief  from  wage-slavery 


42  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

they  must  secure  complete  control  of  the  industries.  But 
when  this  doctrine  was  first  advocated  in  America, 
eighty  years  ago,  the  time  was  not  ripe  for  it.  The  ma- 
chines were  too  small,  the  markets  were  too  limited,  and 
therefore  capitalism  was  not  highly  enough  organized. 
It  was  at  that  time  a  beautiful  and  inspiring  vision  of 
what  the  future  was  to  bring,  rather  than  a  practical 
policy  for  the  working  class. 

The  Growth  of  the  Craft  Unions. — The  great  error  of 
the  craft  unionists  has  been  in  thinking  that  they  can 
permanently  better  the  condition  of  all  the  members  of 
their  craft.  The  skilled  worker  can  generally  sell  him- 
self in  the  open  market  for  only  a  little  more  than  the 
unskilled  worker,  at  most  from  ten  to  twenty  per  cent 
more.  Let  us  take,  for  example,  a  machinist.  A  man  of 
average  intelligence  can  learn  the  machinist  trade  in 
three  years.  If  the  machinists  receive  very  much  more 
than  the  average  of  the  unskilled  workers,  large  numbers 
of  the  unskilled  will  set  themselves  to  becoming  machin- 
ists. By  and  by  the  number  of  machinists  will  outrun 
the  number  of  jobs  to  be  had.  Then  the  wages  of  the 
machinists  will  fall  until  it  is  but  little  more  than  that 
of  unskilled  labor. 

To  meet  this  difficulty  the  craft  unionists  do  not  at- 
tempt to  keep  up  wages  chiefly  by  fighting  the  employ- 
ers. They  seek  to  make  of  their  union  a  job  trust.  This 
is  done,  first,  by  restricting  the  number  of  apprentices. 
Some  unions  permit  only  the  sons  and  brothers  of  the 
members  to  learn  their  trade.  But  this  method  cannot  be 
entirely  successful.  The  employers  will  always  find  ways 
of  securing  more  skilled  workers.  Some  come  from  other 
countries.  But  most  of  the  newcomers  in  the  trade  are 
those  who  have  been  helpers.  Thus  blacksmiths'  helpers 
soon  become  blacksmiths  and  machinists'  helpers  become 
machinists.    Time  and  again  have  these  trades  gone  on 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  43 

strike  only  to  find  that  their  helpers  have  taken  their 
places  and  done  their  work.  There  remains  but  one  thing 
for  the  union  to  do.  It  may  keep  out  new  members  by 
high  initiation  fees  and  closed  books.  This  is  very  com- 
monly done  and  the  union  scale  of  wages  for  a  time  main- 
tained. But  it  cannot  be  permanent.  Sooner  or  later,  in 
every  trade,  comes  the  machine.  The  machine  is  the 
great  leveler.  It  has  broken  the  ranks  of  union  after 
union  by  making  an  end  of  the  trade.  In  the  few  remain- 
ing crafts  where  high  wages  are  paid  and  the  eight-hour 
day  is  maintained,  as  in  the  building  trades,  there  are  so 
many  workers  that  unemployment  brings  down  the  aver- 
age yearly  wage  to  far  below  the  union  scale.  Also,  while 
the  cost  of  living  goes  up  fifty  per  cent,  the  craft  union 
may  raise  wages  twenty  per  cent.  There  appears  to 
have  been  a  rise  when  in  fact  there  has  been  a  fall  in 
wages.  In  the  face  of  all  these  facts  craft  unions  can- 
not maintain  the  standard  of  living  of  their  members. 

^jut  the  greatest  weakness  of  craft  unions  flows  from 
the  very  nature  of  their  organization  and  purpose.  The 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  which  includes  nearly  all 
of  the  craft  unions  of  the  Nation7 TTalTrieveF  at  any  time 
claimed  to  have  had  more  than  seven  per  cent  of  the 
American  working  class  within  its  ranks.  It  does  not 
exist  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  the  working  class.  It 
Hfa  loose  association  of  craft  unions,  each  of  which  mere- 
ly desires  to  keep  up  the  standard  of  wages  and  hours  in 
its  own  trade.  The  American  Federation  of  Labor  has 
no  message  for  the  working  class.  It  does  not  seek  to 
make  an  end  of  unemployment,  of  child  labor,  and  of  all 
the  other  frightful  conditions  of  labor.  To  accomplish 
this  it  would  have  to  make  an  end  of  the  wages  system. 
It  would  have  to  fight  the  capitalists  as  a  matter  of  prin- 
ciple. But  instead  of  fighting  the  capitalists,  craft  union- 
ism whenever  possible  makes  peace  with  them  and  sup- 


44  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

ports  the  wages  system.  Out  of  this  attitude  grows  one 
of  the  greatest  errors  of  craft  unionism,  the  signing  of 
agreements  with  the  employers.  These  agreements  tie 
the  hands  of  the  workers  and  prevent  them  from  striking 
for  better  conditions.  But  they  do  not  prevent  the  capi- 
talist from  shutting  up  his  shop  and  turning  the  workers 
into  the  street  whenever  he  pleases.  There  should  be  no 
agreements  between  capitalists  and  wage  workers  which 
bind  the  workers  to  their  work.  Like  the  blind,  the  craft 
unions  hobble  along  a  step  at  a  time,  seeing  not  where 
they  go.  Every  new  invention  of  machinery  makes  the 
journeyman  of  today  the  apprentice  of  tomorrow.  While 
industrial  progress  is  destroying  union  after  union,  those 
that  remain  hug  the  delusion  that  they  are  going  to  last 
forever.  It  was  of  these  unions  that  Karl  Marx  said 
forty-six  years  ago,  that  they  generally  failed  "from  lim- 
iting themselves  to  a  guerilla  war  against  the  effects  of 
the  existing  system  instead  of  trying  to  change  it,  in- 
stead of  using  their  organized  forces  for  the  abolition  of 
the  wages  system." 

The  Growth  of  the  Class  Unions. — In  all  of  the  par- 
ticulars above  enumerated,  class  unionism  is  the  opposite 
of  craft  unionism.     The  early  form  of  the  class  union 

1  movement  in  the  United  States  was  the  Knights  of 
Labor.  It  was  organized  in  1869.  It  rose  to  its  period  of 
greatest  strength  from  1880  to  1890  and  practically  went 
out  of  existence  in  1895.  Its  position  was  fundamentally 
correct.  It  sought  to  bring  together  all  workers  in  one 
big  union.  It  kept  steadily  before  it  a  great  general  prin- 
ciple— the  universal  eight-hour  day.  But  the  Knights  of 
Labor,  as  regards  two  matters,  was  in  error.  First,  while 
it  provided  for  one  big  union  for  all  the  workers,  it  per- 
mitted no  industrial  departments,  nor  craft  locals  within 
the  union.  It  gathered  into  one  local  the  butcher,  the 
baker  and  the  candlestick  maker.    There  are  often  sepa- 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  45 

rate  problems  of  industrial  departments,  and  sometimes 
of  craft  locals,  which  the  whole  union  cannot  solve  so 
well  as  the  members  of  the  particular  industry  or  craft 
affected.  In  failing  to  provide  for  industrial  shop  organ- 
izations, the  Knights  of  Labor  paved  the  way  for  its  own 
destruction.  Secondly,  the  Knights  of  Labor  admitted  to 
its  ranks  small  capitalists,  members  of  the  professions 
and  other  non  wage-workers.  This  was  a  very  great 
error.  A  union  should  contain  only  members  of  the 
working  class. 

Instead  of  making  peace  with  the  capitalist  whenever 
it  can,  class  unionism  fights  the  capitalist  whenever  it 
can.  Instead  of  being  satisfied  with  the  present  enslaved 
condition  of  the  working  class,  class  unionism  has  always 
for  a  goal  a  permanently  better  condition  for  all  the 
workers.  Today  industrial  unionism,  which  is  the  form 
class  unionism  has  taken,  must  agitate  ceaselessly  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  working  class. 

Industrial  Unionism. — The  motto  of  industrial  union- 
ism is One  union  of  all  workers  in  an  industry;  all  in- 
dustries in  one  union.  The  question  is,  not  what  tool  do 
you  use,  but  what  kind  of  product  do  you  help  turn  out? 
Industrial  unionism  has  been  developed  to  meet  the  con- 
ditions confronting  the  workers  since  the  coming  of  the 
latest  machines  and  the  organization  of  the  trusts. 

The  revolutionary  industrial  union  is  ever  active;  al- 
ways fighting.  The  prosperity  of  a  modern  labor  organ- 
ization is  measured  by  its  activity.  Activity  for  improved 
conditions  or  against  the  lowering  of  existing  standards 
of  living  means  that  the  membership  is  in  arms  against 
the  exploiters. 

Action  against  exploitation  requires  agitation,  pub- 
licity, strikes,  boycotts,  political  force— all  the  elements 
and   expressions  of  discontent.     Discontent   is   life.     It 


46  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

impels  to  action.  Contentment  means  stagnation  and 
death. 

The  Western  Federation  of  Miners. — As  an  example 
of  what  industrial  unionism  can  do  we  shall  briefly  trace 
the  history  of  the  most  successful  of  all  American  labor 
unions,  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners.  It  was  organ- 
ized in  1892  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  together  all  the 
workers  in  the  industry  of  metal  mining  in  the  United 
States. «  It  united  the  man  who  used  the  pick  and  shovel 
and  the  man  who  used  the  machine.  It  included  the  engi- 
neers, the  mill  and  smelter  men  and  all  other  workers  in 
and  about  the  metal  mines. 

This  union  of  course  developed  strength  absolutely 
impossible  among  craft  unions.  When  a  strike  is  de- 
clared all  the  workers  strike  at  once.  Agreements  with 
the  bosses  are  never  signed.  The  Western  Federation 
of  Miners  never  furnishes  the  ridiculous  spectacle  of  one 
part  of  its  members  being  on  strike  against  the  employer 
and  another  part  at  work  breaking  the  strike.  This  form 
of  organization  helped  to  develop  the  fighting  spirit  for 
which  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners  has  been  noted. 
Where  the  interest  of  each  is  the  concern  of  all,  a  spirit 
of  genuine  solidarity  prevails.  No  strike  can  be  long 
and  bitter  enough  to  dishearten  the  miners. 

I'y  lighting  a  scries  of  the  greatest  battles  in  the 
history  of  American  labor,  the  W'estern  Federation  of 
Miners  has  won  the  eight-hour  day,  not  for  a  few  craft 
unionists,  but  for  all  the  workers  in  and  about  the  mines, 
skilled  and  unskilled  alike.  It  has  obtained  almost  every- 
where the  minimum  wage  of  $3.00  a  day,  and  in  many 
mining  towns  the  minimum  wage  is  $3.50.  Where  wages 
go  up  it  is  found  that  it  is  much  easier  to  raise  those  of 
the  skilled  laborer  higher  than  where  the  unskilled  are 
unorganized  and  unprotected.  For  instance,  where  the 
unskilled  worker  received  $3.50,  the  machine  runner  $4.00 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  47 

and  the  engineer  $5.00,  the  pick  and  shovel  men  are  not 
all  struggling  to  become  machine  runners  and  engineers. 

The  General  Strike. — There  are  three  phases  of  a  gen- 
eral strike.    They  are : 

A  general  strike  in  an  industry. 

A  general  strike  in  a  community,  or 

A  general  national  strike. 

The  right  conditions  for  any  of  the  three  on  a  large 
scale  have  never  existed.  So  no  one  can  logically  take 
the  position  that  a  general  strike  would  not  be  effective 
and  not  be  good  tactics  for  the  working  class.  We  know 
that  the  capitalist  uses  the  general  strike  to  good  advan- 
tage. Here  is  the  position  that  we  find  the  working  class 
and  the  capitalists  in :  The  capitalists  have  wealth.  They 
have  money.  They  invest  the  money  in  machinery  and 
in  the  resources  of  the  earth.  They  operate  a  mine,  a 
factory,  or  a  railroad.  They  keep  that  factory  running 
just  as  long  as  there  are  profits  coming  in.  When  any- 
thing happens  to  disturb  the  profits,  what  do  the  capi- 
talists do?  They  go  on  strike.  They  withdraw  their 
financial  support  from  that  particular  mill.  They  close 
it  down  because  there  are  no  profits  to  be  made  there. 
They  care  not  what  becomes  of  the  working  class.  But 
the  working  class,  on  the  other  hand,  has  always  been 
taught  to  take  care  of  the  capitalist's  interest  in  the  prop- 
erty. It  cares  too  little  for  its  own  interests.  A  general 
strike  would  ignore  the  capitalist's  interests  and  concern 
itself  with  the  workers'  interests  only. 

Power  in  the  Industries. — The  industrial  organization 
is  capable  not  only  of  the  general  strike.  It  prevents  the 
capitalists  from  disfranchising  the  workers  in  the  shops. 
It  gives  the  vote  to  women.  It  re-enfranchises  the  black 
men  and  places  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  every  boy 
and  girl  employed  in  a  shop,  making  them  eligible  to  take 
part  in  the  general  strike.    It  makes  them  eligible  to  leg- 


48  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

islate  for  themselves  where  they  are  most  interested  in 
changing  conditions,  namly,  in  the  place  where  they 
work. 

Industrial  Unionism  Grows. — At  the  present  time 
practically  the  whole  American  working  class  accepts 
the  principles  of  industrial  unionism.  All  agree  that  the 
workers  should  have  one  big  union.  All  are  coming  to 
agree  that  this  union  must  more  and  more  control  indus- 
try, until  finally  it  rules  and  administers  the  industries 
of  the  Nation.  When  the  working  class  is  well  enough 
organized  industrially  and  possesses  the  necessary  politi- 
cal power,  it  will  take  its  whole  product.  The  capitalists 
must  then  go  to  work.  Socialism  will  thus  be  a  reality. 
Everywhere  the  idea  arouses  intense  enthusiasm.  The 
growth  and  progress  of  industrial  organization  itself 
must  soon  follow.  Once  united,  industrially  and  politically, 
and  resolved  to  make  an  end  of  wage  slavery,  nothing  can 
prevent  the  final  victory  of  the  workers. 


(A- 


>.. 


IV— INDUSTRIAL  FREEDOM 

Socialism  is  industrial  democracy. 

Industrial  democracy  is  Socialism. 

Under  Socialism  the  government  of  the  Nation  will 
be  an  industrial  government,  a  shop  government.  The 
political  government  of  today,  composed  of  president, 
congress  and  the  courts,  with  the  governments  of  the 
various  states,  is  purely  a  class  government.  It  is  the 
government  of  the  property  holding  classes.  Its  pur- 
pose is  to  protect  private  property  and  keep  the  workers, 
who  have  no  property,  in  subjection.  Its  most  important 
laws  are  laws  of  oppression.  Its  most  important  build- 
ings are  court  houses  and  prisons.  Its  most  important 
servants  are  policemen,  detectives  and  soldiers. 

Socialism,  or  shop  government  by  the  workers,  will 
need  no  armies,  navies,  police,  detectives  and  prisons. 
Judges  today  are  almost  wholly  concerned  with  two 
kinds  of  work.  One  is  to  try  cases  at  law  which  grow 
out  of  private  property  relations.  When  two  property 
holders  quarrel  about  a  piece  of  property  they  go  to  court 
in  order  to  have  the  fight  settled  as  cheaply  as  possible. 
Another  function  of  the  courts  is  to  sit  in  judgment  upon, 
and  determine  the  punishment  of  such  of  the  poor  as  may 
have  been  "guilty"  of  disrespect  for  private  property.  Of 
course  everybody  now  knows  that  rich  offenders  pur- 
chase this  "justice,"  while  poor  offenders  get  it  presented 
to  them.  Do  the  starving  poor  take  food?  They  are  sent 
to  jail.  Do  they  strike  for  more  wages?  They  are 
clubbed,  shot  or  imprisoned.  Such  is  the  nature  and 
purpose  of  the  political  government  today. 

Under  Socialism  there  will  be  no  lawless  rich  to  keep 

■^  49 


V 


50  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

their  place  by  crushing  the  poor.  There  will  be  no  en- 
slaved poor  to  be  kept  down.  There  will  be  no  great 
private  fortunes  to  fight  about  in  the  courts.  Hence  gov- 
ernment will  concern  itself  only  with  the  management 
of  industry,  with  the  promotion  of  public  education  and 
with  other  public  activities  which  are  of  benefit  to  the 
workers. 

THE  GROWTH  OF  SOCIALISM 

Unity  of  the  Labor  Union  and  the  Socialist  Party. — 
The  Socialist  Party  and  the  labor  union  will  come  closer 
and  closer  together.  The  labor  union  will  come  to  stand 
for  Socialism.  The  Socialist  Party  will  thus  become 
a  mere  phase  of  the  labor  movement.  The  union 
and  the  party  together  make  war  upon  the  enemy, 
the  capitalist  class.  This  fight  is,  first  of  all,  a 
shop  fight.  It  takes  place  at  the  point  of  produc- 
tion where  the  workers  are  at  present  enslaved.  Un- 
til this  is  understood  there  can  be  no  real  understand- 
ing of  Socialism.  To  understand  the  world  and  the 
world's  struggle  at  the  present  time  we  must  look  at  it 
through  shop  windows.  That  is  why  college  professors, 
preachers_,  authors  and  business  men  must  take  the  work- 
ing class  point  of  view  before  they  can  understand  Social- 
visrrh  They  must  understand  the  struggle  in  the  shop. 
Then  only  can  they  understand  the  needs  of  the  workers 
and  the  power  of  the  workers.  Otherwise  these  upper 
class  people  will  be  weak-kneed  reformers  and  not  So- 
cialists. Many  clergymen,  college  professors  and  lawyers, 
and  workers  who  have  learned  their  Socialism  from 
these,  imagine  that  Socialism  is  "government  ownership." 
"Under  Socialism,"  they  say,  "the  government  will  own 
the  railroads,  the  mines  and  the  factories." 

Government  Ownership  Not  Socialism. — Government 
ownership  can  never  lead  to  Socialism.    It  is  not  a  step 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 


51 


toward  Socialism.  It  has  nothing  Socialistic  about  it, 
because  all  political  government  is  administration  from 
the  top.  At  the  present  time  the  employes  of  the  United 
States  Postoffice  are  treated  worse  than  many  employes 
of  private  capitalists.  The  railway  mail  clerks  are  less 
protected  and  work  for  less  wages  than  most  of  the  other 
trainmen.  Wherever  the  capitalists  are  being  driven  by 
the  Socialist  Movement  they  are  crying  out  for  "govern- 
ment ownership"  to  save  them.  The  railroad  thieves  in 
the  United  States  will  soon  want  nothing  so  much  as  to 
turn  over  their  watered  stocks  to  the  National  Govern- 
ment. They  would  then  draw  their  profits  as  interest  on 
government  bonds.  No  profits  in  the  world  could  be 
safer.  The  government  would  then  have  to  rob  the  rail- 
road workers  and  turn  over  the  stolen  money  to  the  idle 
government  railroad  bondholders. 

The  present  governments  of  the  United  States  and  of 
the  separate  states  were  developed  long  before  Socialism 
was  thought  of.  Even  if  the  workers  put  Socialists  of 
proved  wisdom  and  honesty  in  office,  the  present  govern- 
ment could  not  possibly  become  a  Socialist  government. 
It  was  not  made  for  that  purpose.  The  workers  might 
as  well  take  a  cannon  left  over  from  the  Revolutionary 
War,  run  it  on  the  street  car  track  and  pretend  that  it  is 
an  up-to-date  electric  car,  as  to  try  to  make  over  the  pres- 
ent government  of  the  United  States  into  a  Socialist 
government.  A  wise  tailor  does  not  put  stitches  in  rot- 
ten cloth. 

The  political  government  of  capitalism  has  served  its 
purpose.  Its  day  is  done.  The  Socialist  Party  can  seize 
it,  prevent  its  doing  further  harm  to  the  workers  and  at 
the  proper  time  throw  it  on  the  scrap  heap  where  it  will 
repose  with  the  outworn  tools  for  the  protection  of  which 
it  was  organized. 

The  Industrial  Empire. — We    have  already  described 


52  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

the  new  government — the  government  of  industry.  Its 
development  began  with  the  organization  of  industrial 
corporations.  At  the  present  time  it  is  rapidly  becoming 
centralized.  Its  capital  is  at  New  York  City.  There  its 
executive  and  legislative  departments  are  located.  It  is 
a  plutocracy,  a  form  of  government  by  the  great  rich.  It 
is  rapidly  becoming  an  empire. 

This  industrial  government  makes  the  real  laws  of  the 
land.  It  determines  who  shall  and  who  shall  not  work 
and  how  long  and  for  what  wages.  That  is,  it  has  the 
power  to  say  who  shall  live  and  who  shall  not  live.  It 
legislates  as  regards  the  amount  of  protection  the  worker 
shall  receive  while  at  work.  It  holds  in  its  hands  the 
powers  of  both  the  industrial  and  political  governments. 
It  has  decreed,  in  order  that  profits  may  be  increased, 
that  the  workers  shall  suffer  slavery,  starvation,  disease 
and  death. 

The  Industrial  Republic. — The  workers'  government 
of  the  future  will  realize  Socialism.  No  government  is 
created  in  a  day.  Any  new  system  of  society,  with  its 
peculiar  government,  must  grow  through  many  years  to 
its  final  and  perfected  form.  In  this  Socialism  cannot  be 
different  from  other  forms  of  government.  Socialism 
cannot  be  realized  until  the  workers,  through  their  in- 
dustrial government,  own  and  manage  the  means  of 
production.  This  government  is  now  developing — in  the 
workshops,  of  course.  Wherever  the  organized  workers 
gain  partial  control  over  the  shop  in  which  they  work, 
we  have  the  growth  of  industrial  democracy.  If  the 
workers  have  been  employed  twelve  hours  a  day  and 
they  force  their  employer  to  grant  them  the  ten-hour  day, 
they  are  passing  an  important  law  of  the  shop.  That  law 
springs  from  the  power  of  the  workers  to  govern  the 
shop. 

Suppose  that  the  workers  of  the  whole  Nation  de- 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 


53 


manded  and  enforced  the  eight-hour  day.  That  would 
be  a  mightier  law  in  the  interest  of  the  working  class 
than  all  the  laws  ever  passed  by  Congress  and  the  state 

legislatures. 

With  the  growth  of  the  organized  industrial  and  po- 
litical power  of  the  workers,  the  class  struggle  will  be- 
come ever  keener.  The  government  of  the  capitalists 
will  make  war  on  the  workers.  The  battle  will  rage 
throughout  the  land,  in  every  city  and  town,  in  every 
shop  and  mine.  It  will  continue  until  the  workers  are 
strong  enough  to  gain  complete  control  of  the  Nation's 
industries.  The  trust  is  organized  industry.  The  labor 
union  will  become  organized  industrial  society. 

THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE  IN  POLITICS 

"in  their  war  upon  the  working  class,  one  of  the  most 
effective  weapons  of  the  capitalists  has  been  the  physical 
force  wielded  by  their  political  government.  Everywhere 
the  workers  have  been  fooled  into  supporting  this  gov- 
ernment. The  Republican  and  Democratic  parties  and 
the  various  reform  parties  are  maintained  to  keep  the 
workers  divided.  Whichever  of  these  capitalist  parties 
is  victorious,  the  workers  are  always  defeated.  Demo- 
cratic, Republican  and  reform  politicians  alike  use  the 
powers  of  government  in  the  interests  of  the  master 
class,  wherever  the  workers  .seek  to  control  the  shop. 
Whenever  the  workers  strike  they  are  brutally  clubbed, 
stabbed  and  shot  by  police  and  soldiers.  Whenever  they 
declare  a  boycott  they  may  be  put  in  jail.  Injunctions 
prevent  them  from  picketing  a  struck  shop  and  talking 
to  the  strike  breakers.  The  courts  seize  the  funds  of 
the  union  and  turn  them  over  to  the  capitalists. 

Fortunately  the  male  workers  have  the  right  to  vote. 
At  first  they  foolishly  try  to  defend  themselves  by  de- 
feating this  or  that  obnoxious  politician  of  the  old  par- 


54  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

ties.  They  vote  for  such  politicians  as  call  themselves 
"the  friends  of  labor."  But  they  soon  find  out  again 
that  "the  friends  of  labor"  out  of  office,  become  the  ene- 
mies of  labor  when  in  office.  So  finally,  in  every  country 
under  the  sun,  the  workers  are  forced  to  organize  a  party 
of  their  own. 

The  Socialist  Party. — In  America  this  party  of  the 
workers  is  the  Socialist  Party.  It  has  now  been  devel- 
oping for  nearly  twenty  years.  For  many  workers  it 
seems  to  grow  too  slowly.  This  is  because  of  the  great 
work  and  mission  of  the  Socialist  Party.  A  labor  reform 
party  might  elect  officers  very  quickly  and  in  a  few  years 
control  the  country.  In  Australia  this  has  actually  taken 
place.  But  the  workers  of  Australia  have  found  that  their 
Labor  Party  is  no  better  than  any  other  capitalist  party. 
This  is  so  because  it  is  not  a  Socialist  party.  The  So- 
cialist Party  stands  not  merely  for  the  POLITICAL 
supremacy  of  labor.  It  stands  for  the  INDUSTRIAL 
supremacy  of  labor.  Its  purpose  is  not  to  secure  old 
age  pensions  and  Tree  meals  for  school  children.  Its 
mission  is  to  help  overthrow  capitalism  and  establish 
Socialism. 

What  Will  the  Socialist  Party  Do?— The  great  pur- 
pose of  the  Socialist  Party  is  to  seize  the  powers  of  gov- 
ernment and  thus  prevent  them  from  being  used  by  the 
capitalists  against  the  workers.  With  Socialists  in  politi- 
cal offices  the  workers  can  strike  and  not  be  shot.  They  can 
picket  shops  and  not  be  arrested  and  imprisoned.  Free- 
dom of  speech  and  of  the  press,  now  often  abolished  by 
the  tyrannical  capitalists,  will  be  secured  to  the  working 
class.  Then  they  can  continue  the  shop  organization 
and  the  education  of  the  workers.  To  win  the  demands 
made  on  the  industrial  field  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
control  the  government,  as  experience  shows  strikes  to 
have  been  lost  through  the  interference  of  courts  and 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  55 

militia.  The  same  functions  of  government,  controlled 
by  a  class-conscious  working  class,  will  be  used  to  inspire 
confidence  and  compel  the  wheels  of  industry  to  move  in 
spite  of  the  devices  and  stumbling  blocks  of  the  capi- 
talists. 

The  Socialist  Party  is  not  a  political  party  in  the 
same  sense  as  other  parties.  The  success  of  Socialism 
would  abolish  practically  every  office  existing  under  the 
present  form  of  government.  Councils,  legislatures  and 
congresses  would  not  be  composed  principally  of  law- 
yers, as  they  are  now,  whose  highest  ambition  seems  to 
be  to  enact  laws  with  loop-holes  in  them  for  the  rich. 
But  the  legislatures  of  the  workers  would  be  composed 
of  men  and  women  representing  the  different  branches 
of  industry  and  their  work  would  be  to  improve  the 
conditions  of  labor,  to  minimize  the  expenditure  of 
labor-power,  and  to  increase  production. 

THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  SOCIALIST  PARTY 

The  most  priceless  intellectual  possession  of  the 
world's  workers  has  been  the  gift  of  the  Socialist  Move- 
ment. This  includes  a  complete  system  of  thought  with 
regard  to  human  society  and  social  progress.  It  was 
worked  out  by  the  first  great  scientific  Socialists,  Karl 
Marx  and  Frederick  Engels.  Their  main  ideas  are  in- 
cluded in  this  system.  We  shall  briefly  discuss  each  of 
these. 

Surplus  Value. — Long  before  the  coming  of  the  mod- 
ern Socialist  Movement  it  was  understood  by  the  econ- 
omists that  all  wealth  is  produced  by  labor.  How  then, 
it  was  questioned,  can  profits  be  accounted  for?  If  labor 
produces  all  wealth  why  do  not  the  laborers  receive  their 
full  product?  The  answer  to  this  question  was  not 
known  until  it  came  from  Karl  Marx.  Wages,  said  Marx, 
are  not  the  full  product  of  labor.     Nor  are  wages  any 


56  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

definite  part  of  the  product.  Wages  are  simply  the  sell- 
ing price  of  the  worker  in  the  market.  This  selling  price, 
on  the  average,  is  just  enough  to  keep  the  worker  in  good 
condition  to  do  his  work  and  produce  some  one  to  take 
his  place.  For  instance,  if  the  worker  toils  ten  hours 
and  produces  $10.00  worth  of  wealth,  he  does  not  receive 
$10.00,  nor  $5.00.  If  $2.00  will  support  him  he  receives 
$2.00,  and  no  more.  These  $2.00  are  his  wages  and  the 
remaining  $8.00  are  the  profits  of  the  capitalist.  If  the 
hours  of  the  worker  be  increased,  and  better  machines  in- 
troduced, the  workers'  product  is  increased,  let  us  say,  to 
$15.00.  Do  the  workers'  wages  go  up  ?  No.  They  are  now 
but  $1.50.    The  profits,  or  surplus-value,  are  now  $13.50. 

The  theory  of  surplus  value  is  the  beginning  of  all 
Socialist  knowledge.  It  shows  the  capitalist  in  his  true 
light,  that  of  an  idler  and  parasite.  It  proves  to  the  work- 
ers that  capitalists  should  no  longer  be  permitted  to  take 
any  of  their  product.  Without  this  knowledge  the  work- 
er will  never  fight  along  correct  lines.  With  this  knowl- 
edge he  will  never  stop  fighting  until  Socialism,  which 
will  give  to  the  working  class  the  whole  of  its  product, 
shall  be  fully  realized. 

Economic  Determinism. — Until  Marx  it  was  generally 
thought  that  history  was  made  by  great  men.  Great 
men  won  battles,  made  treaties  of  peace,  created  consti- 
tutions and  laws,  ruled  nations,  and  saved  humanity  from 
destruction.  Marx  and  Engels  showed,  through  their 
study  of  history,  that  this  was  a  childish  view  of  life 
and  of  government.  The  great  facts  of  history — its  wars, 
its  governments,  its  art,  science  and  literature— these 
were  created  by  a  deeper  social  force.  This  force,  said 
Marx,  was  the  economic  or  material  force.  People  lived 
as  they  did  and  acted  as  they-  did,  because  they  made 
their  living  in  a  certain  way.  If  they  used  small,  rude 
tools,  and  the  soil   they  worked  was  poor,   their  ideas 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  57 

would  be  much  different  from  what  they  would  be  if 
they  used  larger  and  more  productive  tools  upon  richer 
soil.  The  nature  of  man's  social  life  depends  chiefly  upon 
the  physical  conditions  under  which  he  is  living.  This 
same  principle  is  true  in  matters  of  morality.  An  indi- 
vidual, or  nation,  or  a  class,  will  finally  come  to  think  that 
right  which  is  to  his  material  advantage.  Nations  make 
war  in  order  to  add  to  their  possessions.  Individuals 
engage  in  such  work  or  business  as  will  yield  them  the 
largest  pay  or  profits.  A  class  will  fight  to  the  death 
with  another  class  over  profits  or  wages. 

In  war,  killing  people  and  burning  cities  is  thought  to 
be  a  patriotic  work.  If  successful  it  is  considered  to  be 
right  and  fine.  In  industry  the  capitalists  will  enslave 
small  children,  and  the  profits  wrung  from  their  pitiful 
toil  goes  to  build  churches  and  universities  and  support 
Christian  missions.  The  murderous  capitalist  who  robs 
cradles  to  get  his  gold  comes  to  be  praised  as  most  "be- 
nevolent," "virtuous,"  "religious,"  etc.  — A 

When  the  worker,  either  through  experience  or  al 
study  of  Socialism,  comes  to  know  this  truth,  he  acts 
accordingly.  He  retains  absolutely  no  respect  for  the 
property  "rights"  of  the  profit-takers.  He  will  use  any 
weapon  which  will  win  his  fight.  He  knows  that  the 
present  laws  of  property  are  made  by  and  for  the  capi- 
talists. Therefore  he  does  not  hesitate  to  break  them. 
He  knows  that  whatever  action  advances  the  interests 
of  the  working  class  is  right,  because  it  will  save  the 
workers  from  destruction  and  death.  A  knowledge  of 
economic  determinism  places  the  worker  squarely  on  his 
intellectual  feet  and  makes  him  bold  and  independent  of 
mind. 

The  Class  Struggle. — An  understanding  of  the  class 
struggle,  which  we  have  repeatedly  discussed  before, 
comes  only  from  a  knowledge  of  the  economic  interpre- 


58  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

tation  of  history.  If  the  conditions  of  a  people  are  deter- 
mined by  the  nature  of  the  tools  they  use,  of  the  work 
they  do,  and  by  their  relation  to  these  tools  (that  is, 
whether  they  own  them  or  not),  then  we  may  easily 
obtain  an  insight  into  the  working  class  struggle.  All 
the  great  revolutions  of  history,  said  Marx,  have  been 
class  struggles.  So,  too,  must  be  the  movement  of  the 
workers.  No  class  has  been  really  free  until  it  has  ruled 
society.  Therefore  the  working  class,  to  be  free,  must 
rule  society.  But  the  workers,  when  they  free  them- 
selves, will  make  slaves  of  no  one.  Machines  will  be  so 
developed  that  every  one  can  labor  and  live  in  freedom. 
Long  ago  slavery  was  necessary  to  the  end  that  the  mas- 
ter might  develop  civilization.  Under  Socialism  a  higher 
and  better  civilization  will  be  open  to  all. 

The  Growth  of  the  Socialist  Party. — The  necessity 
and  value  of  a  knowledge  of  Socialism  to  the  working 
class  need  not  be  emphasized.  Into  every  country  has 
gone  the  Socialist  Party  with  its  message  of  enlighten- 
ment and  hope.  This  part  of  its  work  has  just  begun. 
In  America,  on  April  1,  1911,  eighty  thousand  people 
had  accepted  the  principles  of  Socialism  and  joined  the 
Party.  In  1910,  its  candidates  received  600,000  votes. 
But  millions  remain  to  be  educated  to  a  knowledge  of 
Socialism  before  freedom  can  be  obtained.  In  this  work 
both  the  Socialist  Party  and  the  labor  union  will  bear  a 
prominent  part.  During  the  political  campaigns  the  edu- 
cational work  of  the  Party  is  especially  effective.  It 
can  then  get  the  ear  of  the  working  class  and  emphasize 
the  great  truths  it  bears.  Political  victories  are  them- 
selves of  great  value  in  drawing  the  attention  of  the 
working  class  to  Socialism  and  spreading  a  desire  to 
understand  it. 

The  Socialist  Party  and  the  Government  of  Cities. — 
The  Socialist  Party  has  a  further  function.     Modern  in- 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 


59 


dustrial  cities  are  a  product  of  Capitalism.  They  are 
growing  and  will  continue  to  grow  constantly  larger. 
The  governments  of  cities  are  much  more  than  the  agents 
of  the  capitalist  class.  They  develop  social  service  de- 
partments, such  as  the  fire  department,  the  waterworks, 
public  schools  and  parks.  Through  a  department  of 
public  health,  they  can,  by  means  of  scientific  hygiene, 
protect  and  promote  the  health  of  the  community. 

These  governments  of  cities  are  at  present  run  by 
politicians,  in  the  interests  of  the  capitalists,  for  graft. 
They  must  be  captured  and  used  in  the  interest  of 
the  workers.  But  at  present,  city  government  in 
the  interest  of  the  workers  is  made  almost  impossible 
through  the  capitalist  control  of  the  states.  With  the 
growth  of  the  Socialist  political  power  they  can  more 
and  more  be  liberated  to  serve  the  working  class. 

The  mission  of  the  Socialist  Party  is  therefore  three- 
fold: 

First,  it  must  lay  hold  of  all  the  powers  of  political 
government  and  prevent  them  from  being  used  against 
the  industrial  organization  of  the  workers. 

Second,  it  must  be  the  bearer  of  sound  knowledge, 
using  its  great  and  growing  organization  to  teach  Social- 
ism. 

Third,  it  must  use  the  governments  of  the  cities  to 
advance  the  social  interests  of  the  working  class. 

THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTION 

The  Socialist,  through  his  knowledge  of  the  law  gov- 
erning social  progress,  gains  an  insight  into  the  future 
which  is  impossible  to  those  ignorant  of  Socialism. 
Through  his  study  of  history  he  comes  to  understand  the 
part  played  by  revolutions.  Whenever  a  social  class  has 
become  powerful  enough  to  rule  society  it  has  seized  the 
reins  of  government.    Thus  the  capitalist  class  in  western 


60  INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM 

Europe  and  America  has  made  an  end  of  the  power  of 
kings.  They  have  accomplished  this  through  a  number 
of  revolutions.  The  most  important  of  these  were  the 
English  Revolution  in  1642,  the  French  Revolution  in 
1789,  and  the  American  Revolution  in  1776.  The  Civil 
War  in  the  United  States  was  a  very  great  revolution. 
It  made  an  end  of  the  power  of  the  Southern  slave- 
holding  class  and  established  capitalism  in  the  South. 

When  the  working  class  is  strong  enough  both  in  its 
union  and  at  the  ballot  box,  it  will  make  an  end  of  capi- 
talism. The  period  in  which  it  will  be  engaged  in  the 
work  of  seizing  all  the  powers  of  industrial  and  political 
government,  will  be  the  period  of  the  social  revolution. 
Of  course  we  cannot  tell  when  this  will  come.  Neither 
can  we  tell  whether  the  period  of  revolution  will  be  long 
or  short.  Both  will  depend  upon  several  facts.  The 
most  important  question  is,  how  long  will  it  take  to  edu- 
cate and  organize  the  working  class?  This  will  be  deter- 
mined much  by  what  the  capitalists  will  do.  The  revolu- 
tion might  be  hastened  by  a  panic.  It  might  be  retarded 
by  a  foreign  war  or  by  capitalist  reforms.  But  it  is  bound 
to  come.  That  the  well  informed  Socialists  can  clearly 
see. 

The  Immediate  Demands  of  the  Workers. — There  is 
only  one  sense  in  which  it  can  be  said  that  Socialism  will 
be  realized  "a  step  at  a  time."  The  steps  taken  must 
move  the  workers  on  toward  control  of  the  industries. 
The  workers  can  today  demand  and  enforce  the  eight- 
hour  day,  protection  of  life  and  limb,  and  abolition  of 
sweating  and  driving.  The  labor  union  should  emphasize 
the  present  fight  in  the  industries.  The  Socialist  Party 
should  emphasize  the  workers'  goal — revolution,  Social- 
ism and  complete  freedom. 

Political  States  Merged  by  Industry. — The  separate 
states  of  the  United  States  have  long  since  ceased  to  be 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  61 

needed.    At  one  time  the  people  of  different  states  were 
widely  separated  because  it  took  so  long  to  travel  from 
one  to  another.     Now  they  are  connected  by  railroads, 
telegraph,   the   postoffice   and   by   the   trusts   and   labor 
unions.     An  old-fashioned  farmer  would  inherit  his  fa- 
ther's  farm   and   leave   it  to  his   son.     His   family  were 
permanent  citizens  of  the  state  in  which  he  lived.     But 
the  members  of  the  working  class  move   from  state  to 
state  in  search  of  employment,  caring  little  in  which  one 
they  happen  to  be.    Let  us  say  that  a  worker  is  employed 
by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company.     His  employer 
is  the  state  of  which  he  is  a  member,  and  which  governs 
him.     He  may  live  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsyl- 
vania, or  any  of  six  other  political  states.      As  a  train- 
man he  goes  through  them  but  does  not  recognize  their 
boundaries. 

Similarly,  a  worker  for  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway  in 
Canada  may  live  in  Michigan,  Ontario  or  New  York. 
But  the  place  of  his  residence  is  not  important  at  all 
when  compared  with  the  province  of  the  Grand  Trunk 
system  to  which  he  is  subject.  The  great  Smelter  Trust 
extends  its  operations  from  the  United  States  into  Can- 
ada and  Mexico.  Canada  and  Mexico  are  parts  of  the 
American  industrial  empire.  The  Western  Federation 
of  Miners  has  more  locals  in  British  Columbia  than  in 
any  American  state.  Members  of  the  W.  F.  of  M.  go 
back  and  forth  over  the  Canadian  border,  working  often 
for  the  same  trust  on  both  sides  of  the  line  and  support- 
ing always  the  same  union.  So  with  Industrial  Social- 
ism. It  will  recognize  no  political  boundary  lines.  To 
the  working  class  there  is  no  foreigner  but  the  capitalist. 
No  Socialism  but  Industrial  Socialism. — Socialist  gov- 
ernment will  concern  itself  entirely  with  the  shop.  So- 
cialism can  demand  nothing  of  the  individual  outside  the 
shop.     It  will  not  say  to  the  worker  how  he  shall  use 


62  INDUSTRIAL    SOCIALISM 

his  product.  Socialism  has  absolutely  nothing  to  do  with 
either  religion  or  the  family.  It  has  no  concern  with  the 
numberless  social  reforms  which  the  capitalists  are  now 
preaching  in  order  to  save  their  miserable  profit  system. 
Old  age  pensions  are  not  Socialism.  The  workers  had 
much  better  fight  for  higher  wages  and  shorter  hours. 
Old  age  pensions  under  the  present  government  are  either 
charity  doled  out  to  paupers,  or  bribes  given  to  voters 
by  politicians.  Self-respecting  workers  despise  such 
means  of  support.  Free  meals  or  cent  meals  for  pov- 
erty-stricken school  children  are  not  Socialism.  Indus- 
trial freedom  will  enable  parents  to  give  their  children 
solid  food  at  home.  Free  food  to  the  workers  cuts  wages 
and  kills  the  fighting  spirit. 

QUESTIONS  CONCERNING  SOCIALISM 

When  a  worker  understands  Industrial  Socialism,  he 
does  not  ask  who  will  do  the  hard  work,  will  Socialism 
divide  up,  will  Socialism  destroy  incentive,  and  similar 
foolish  questions.  Yet  some  serious  questions  remain  to 
be  answered.  When  Socialism  is  explained  as  a  political 
scheme,  to  be  brought  about  by  the  passing  of  laws  in 
the  legislatures  and  Congress,  these  questions  are  natur- 
ally many  and  hard.  But  Industrial  Socialism  is  Social- 
ism with  its  working  clothes  on.  It  is  easily  understood 
by  the  workers.  As  we  look  -from  shop  windows  upon 
the  world  about  us,  the  questions  which  come  into  our 
minds  about  Industrial  Socialism  are  few  and  simple. 

The  Time  and  Duration  of  Work  Under  Socialism. — 
Everybody  now  realizes  that  it  is  ridiculous  for  sane 
people  to  work  all  day  and  every  day.  "The  less  work 
the  better,"  is  the  motto  which  the  workers  must  set 
themselves.  Let  the  immense  profits  which  now  go  to 
the  capitalists  be  taken  by  the  workers.  Let  all  the  law- 
yers, most  of  the  physicians,  the  drummers,  and  the  host 


INDUSTRIAL  SOCIALISM  fo 

of  small  storekeepers  and  the  unemployed  workers  but 
go  to  work  and  produce  wealth.     Let  all  the  wealth  now- 
wasted  in  wars,  in  strikes,  in  competitive  business — let 
all  this  waste  stop.     Let  the  newest  and  best  machines 
and  scientific  methods  be  everywhere  used.     Let  the  in- 
telligence of  the  workers  be  liberated  for  the  many  inven- 
tions and   the  development   of  better   processes,   which 
would  rapidly  follow  under  Socialism.     If  all  this  were 
tc  be  done,  it  is  readily  seen  that  a  small  portion  of  the 
day,  or  a  few  days  per  month,  or  a  few  months  steady 
Work  per  year,  will  yield  wealth  in  abundance.    It  would 
be  foolish  for  us  to  say  how  much  a  worker  should  work, 
because  we  do  not  know  how  much  wealth  he  will  de- 
s.re  for  himself  and  his  family.    It  is  not  for  us  to  deter- 
mine that.     But  it  is  most  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
under  Socialism  an  individual  working-  eight  hours  a  day 
for  four  months  in  the  year  will  produce  food,  clothing 
and  shelter  in  abundance  for  a  family  of  five  people. 

Votes  for  Women. — Socialist  government  will  be  a 
democratic  government  of  industry  by  all  the  workers. 
Of  course  both  men  and  women  will  work.  Free  people 
do  not  wish  to  be  supported,  nor  support  idlers  and  para- 
sites. Therefore,  when  those  who  work  rule,  women  will 
take  part  in  government. 

Those  Who  Will  Not  Work.— Those  who  will  not 
work  will  probably  not  be  permitted  to  starve.  They  will 
undoubtedly  be  tenderly  cared  for  in  insane  hospitals 
and  nursed  back  to  health.  At  present,  even,  all  health- 
ful people  wish  to  work,  yet  none  desire  life-long  slavery 
to  the  profit  of  others. 

THE  COMING  FREEDOM 

In  the  shop  there  must  be  government.  In  the  school 
there  must  be  government.  In  the  conduct  of  the  great 
public   services   there  must   be   government.     We   have 


64      .  INDUSTRIAL    SOCIALISM 

shown  that  Socialism  will  make  government  throughout 
democratic.  The  basis  of  this  freedom  will  be  the  free-  \ 
dom  of  the  individual  to  develop  his  powers.  People  will 
be  educated  in  freedom.  They  will  work  in  freedom. 
They  will  live  in  freedom.  Most  of  the  diseases  which 
now  afflict  humanity  will  be  unknown  because  their 
causes  will  have  been  removed.  Where  there  is  plenty  :: 
for  all,  none  will  be  driven  to  swindle,  to  steal  or  to  take 
profits.  Higher  education  will  be  within  the  reach  of 
every  one.    Science  and  the  arts  will  flourish. 

Socialism  will  establish  democracy  in  the  shop.   Dem- 
ocracy in  the  shop  will  free  the    working    class.      The  | 
working  class,  through  securing  freedom  for  itself,  will  I 
liberate  the  race.     Socialism  will  free  not  only  the  slave  | 
but  the  slave-driver  and  the  slave-owner.     Socialism  to- 1 
day  makes  war  upon  the  enemies  of  the  working  class. 
When  it  is  victorious,  the  enemies  of  the  working  class  f 
will  embrace  it.     Peace  and  brotherhood  will  come  with 
freedom.  J 

=^=^=      \ 

PUBLISHERS'  ANNOUNCEMENT. 

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ii  i  ii  mill  mi  imii  mil!  iiiiiiii  111 111  mi1 
3   1158  00193 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  404  194    3 


